As the third edition of Photo London gets into full swing in central London this week, a number of satellite events and shows will be competing for photography fans in the UK capital. Principle among these is Peckham 24 (19-20 May), a photography festival taking place over a period of 24 hours in Peckham, south London. “The concept behind the 24 hours of the festival is to pack as much as possible into a short space of time—making the journey for visitors from central London and Somerset House to Peckham feel worthwhile,” says the festival’s co-director Vivienne Gamble.
The festival includes six exhibitions centred around Peckham’s Copeland Park—a former industrial yard that is now host to galleries, bars and trendy eateries—as well as several participating galleries across the area, such as the South London Gallery and Hannah Barry Gallery.
Peckham 24 was founded last year by Gamble and the artist Jo Dennis, who is also showing work in this year’s event. “[Last year] was a test and we didn't know whether it would work or not,” Gamble says. “In the end, we were overwhelmed with the response—we had 2,000 people visit in 24 hours and we could see that they were really enjoying the work and the atmosphere at Copeland Park.”
At her own gallery, Seen Fifteen, Gamble is hosting an exhibition of new work by the British-born, Egyptian photographer Laura El-Tantawy, who was one of the four nominees for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize last year. “I had been very moved by her [shortlisted monograph] In The Shadow of the Pyramids,” Gamble says. The exhibition Beyond Here Is Nothing (until 4 June) includes prints, projections and a new monograph of images taken in London and Cairo, which were shot using her iPhone.
At the Copeland Gallery, the British photographer Tom Lovelace has curated an exhibition of 11 artists called At Home She's a Tourist (19-21 May). The exhibition will “present a collection of works that re-stage and reimagine the idea of the domestic space”, Lovelace says. Work by the Swedish photographer Eva Stenram, who re-appropriates images of pin-ups taken in domestic interiors, will be joined by the photocollages by the Danish artist Julie Boserup and the British artist Jonny Briggs, both of whose work is rooted in their unconventional upbringings. The show also includes two film works by photographers: Clare Strand’s piece depicts dust particles at night while Mette Bersang’s work follows her relationship with a potted plant that has replaced her partner, who has left.
Earlier in the year, Peckham 24 put out an open call looking for a local photographer to have an exhibition during the festival, with a poignant story behind the winner. In the Back Room gallery, the photographer Rhianne Clarke is curating an exhibition “of her father's images—that the family discovered after he died”, Gamble says. The striking images of Peckham and East Dulwich taken in the 1970s and 1980s by Clarke’s father, an amateur photographer, were selected from 450 negatives discovered after his death from cancer in 2014.
More satellite shows opening this week:
Foam Talent (until 18 June) at Beaconsfield is a presentation of 24 international young photographers, organised by Amsterdam’s Foam Fotografiemuseum and follows their annual call out for the Talent Issue of Foam Magazine. The final selection was made from almost 1500 submissions from 75 different countries. Highlights include Antonio Ottomanelli’s photograph’s following a drone in Kabul; Stefanie Moshammer's Land of Black Milk series taken in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro; and Jack Davison’s sumptuous series mixing colour, and black and white portraits with street shots reminiscent of Saul Leiter.
Qualsiasità, New Vedute and Acre are three new exhibitions (until 18 June) hosted by The Italian Cultural Institute. Qualsiasita presents work by seven photographers documenting the Romagna region from 1984 onwards; New Vedute is a show of work by the UK photographer Simon Roberts combining contemporary images with postcards; while the Italian photographer Pino Musi is exhibiting agricultural landscapes in Acre.
Grass, Peonie, Bum (until 24 June) at TJ Boulting is Maisie Cousins’s first solo show. The young photographer’s visceral images respond to the “damaging misogynistic ideals of beauty” according to a press statement. The exhibition also includes an installation made in collaboration with the celebrity perfumer Azzi Glasser.
The Austrian photographer Thomas Albdorf’s sometimes crude, sculptural interventions in natural scenes are on show in General View (until 3 June) at Webber Gallery Space, and also at Photo London (until 21 May).