The London Eye

Whilst Canadian photographer Tyler Udall was still in town we visited my friend Jean-David Malat’s Opera Gallery on uber-chic New Bond Street where he was showing the work of Gerard Rancinan in a show called ‘XXL’ [1,2,3]. If you have not heard of Rancinan, like Tyler, then you will be hearing a lot more of him in the near future. He is super-famous in France and his reputation is growing fast around the world. His ‘monumental’ art photographs are massive at 2.8 x 4.7 meters which is ‘wow’ in itself hence the title ‘XXL’! He uses a lab in Dusseldorf who are the only ones in the world capable of printing such large fine art prints. The images themselves are very ‘advertising’ and ‘David LaChapelle’, very slick with lots of production, styling and retouching. My favourite was ‘Art Dealer‘ [4], whilst Tyler’s was one of the dead flowers [5]. However you will need to remortgage your house to buy one! When Tyler and I asked the price of one and were told £250,000 we couldn’t help but burst out laughing in nervous response! Good luck to them but I won’t be putting one on my AMEX card.

Then after lunch at Randall & Aubin it was off to show Tyler the new Photographers Gallery [6] on Ramillies Street – following their move from Great Newport Street. Brett Rogers, Director of the Photographers Gallery, has done a great job bringing photography to the wider market with her high profile shows and events. We didn’t have time to see the main show, which was still the much lauded ‘Warhol Burroughs Lynch’, but I love the new cafe, bookshop and print room. In the print room, run by Shodor Uddin and Anstice Oakeshott, where my business partner recently bought a Jessica Eaton from her ‘Cube‘ series [7], they had a lovely little show by Giacomo Brunelli called ‘Eternal London‘ [8,9]. I love the film-noir style shots of London which were shot over two years in an exclusive commission by the Photographers Gallery.

I have for some reason just started to really take note of what my friends hang on their walls. It’s interesting to see what they like and more importantly what they buy. I was at a mad Mexican Fiesta party and was mesmerised by a whopping wall covering of a black and white photo of two girls in sexy lace eye masks. It appeared to be rather Ellen Von Unwerth but in fact was a Jordi Gomez picture entitled “Masquerade“ [10]. I liked it a lot.

Then back at my own Gallery I was happy to see we had sold one of my favourite Vee Speer’s from her ‘The Birthday Party‘ series. A young girl with a bird (Untitled 22) [11]. I had been secretly thinking maybe it would come and live at my house!

Later in the week I missed the opening of Lucas Foglia’s new show ‘Frontcountry’ at Michael Hoppen Gallery but did manage to pop in the next day and was lucky enough to catch the charming photographer Lucas himself [12], and the very handsome gallery manager Tristan Lund who is sadly leaving the gallery after ten years for pastures new. ‘Frontcountry‘ [13, 15] is an interesting project with Lucas travelling throughout rural Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming, some of the least populated regions in USA, between 2006 and 2013, documenting the way of life of people living in rural America. His work follows in a long line of previous American social documentary photographers and I am sure will stand the test of time. I particularly liked the book which had the full works and which Lucas was kind enough to personalise for me [16].

Tamara Beckwith is the Co-Founder of The Little Black Gallery London.