Paul Hart is awarded the inaugural Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize for the UK. The Austrian Cultural Forum London presents an exhibition of works by the winners and shortlisted artists from 12 February – 26 April 2019.
The Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize is a new photography prize in tribute to the late Austrian émigré photographer Wolf Suschitzky. The ACF London, with support from the Austrian Federal Chancellery initiated the prize in 2018, two years following the death of Wolf Suschitzky. Reflecting the dual nature of his identity the prize was aimed at photographers based on both the UK and Austria.
The winners were selected by an international panel of industry experts including : Katy Baron (Michael Hoppen Gallery & Ben Uri Gallery), Julia Winckler (University of Brighton), Gemma Barnett (The Photographers’ Gallery), Michael Omasta (Synema), Philipp Fleischmann (Schule Friedl Kubelka) and representatives of the Suschitzky family.
Wolf Suschitzky (1912-2016) trained as a photographer at the Austrian State School of Photography in Vienna. With fascism on the rise, he emigrated to Amsterdam in 1934, and to London in the following year. There he started working as a photographer for the illustrated press. He also enjoyed a rich and long career in film, being cameraman on some 200 documentaries, shorts and feature films, among them Get Carter (1971).
“Paul Hart’s careful aesthetic sensitivity and unconventional approach to landscape photography show the depth and significance in the everyday fabric of his native landscape. There is a dissonance between the contemporary subject and the traditional technique. Like Suschitzky, he treats the landscape with the same respect, care and attention to detail without prejudging it.”
Austrian Cultural Forum
Paul Hart (b. 1961) studied Art & Design at Lincoln College of Art (UK) and graduated from Nottingham Trent University (UK) in 1988 with a BA (Hons) in Photography. He has concentrated on long term self-initiated projects for the past fifteen years. Hart works exclusively with the black and white analogue process, as sole craftsman from the moment the negative is exposed to the creation of the final silver gelatin print. His work has been widely exhibited, most recently at; The
Photographers’ Gallery (London), The Royal Photographic Society (Bristol, UK), The University of Cambridge (UK), The Royal Academy of Arts (London) and The Cultural Foundation ARCADE (Dijon, France). Hart has published three monographs : TRUNCATED (2009), FARMED (2016) & DRAINED (2018) all with Dewi Lewis Publishing, with a fourth planned for 2020. His work resides in the V&A Museum National Art Library Collection (London), the Martin Parr Foundation Library
(Bristol, UK), the Ivor Braka Collection (London) & in a number of important private collections.
Hart has spent over a decade exploring human relationships with the land in an on-going three part project on the ‘The Fens’ in the East of England. Lying only a few miles above sea level, this region of reclaimed marshland occupies nearly 1,500 square miles and is now one of the richest arable areas in Europe. It is a landscape defined by long-term reclamation from the sea, sparse isolated settlements and volume agricultural production on a mass scale.
In the first two parts of the series FARMED (2009-15) and DRAINED (2016-2017) Hart examines the complex interrelation that exists between humanity and nature and aims to raise important questions about human-altered topography, and our occupation and stewardship of this land. Although usually devoid of people, there is much of the human in Hart’s quiet, contemplative narrative. By focusing on the often-overlooked elements in familiar vistas, Hart’s aesthetics carry a documentary sensibility that allow the landscapes to define themselves.
The project is published by Dewi Lewis Publishing in a planned series of three books; FARMED (2016), DRAINED (2018) with the concluding part scheduled for 2020.
PAUL HART
www.paulhartphotography.com
Instagram @Paul HartArtist
Twitter @Paul HartArtist
THE WOLF SUSCHITZKY PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE EXHIBITION
12 February – 26 April 2019
Austrian Cultural Forum, London
28 Rutland Gate, London, SW7 1PQ
The exhibition features winning entries by Paul Hart (UK) and Marylise Vigneau (Austria) alongside the shortlisted photographers: From Austria: Kathrin Delhougne, Mario Kiesenhofer, Naa Teki Lebar and Siegmund Skalar and from the UK: Lilli Burridge-Payne, Chris Gunson, Anita Strasser and Alice Zoo.
The exhibition is curated by Vanessa Fewster and Katy Barron.
