15 March – 26 April 2008
GALLERY 1, The Town Hall Galleries

The prestigious Jerwood Photography Awards were established in 2003, and are funded by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and managed by Portfolio magazine. The Awards aim to support talented artists in the early stages of professional life.

The 2007 Jerwood Photography Awards were open to artists resident in the UK that graduated from a visual arts degree courses in the UK between January 2004 and September 2007. Awards were made to the five artists listed below, who in the opinion of the selectors, demonstrated originality and excellence.

Selector Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs, Victoria & Albert Museum, London commented of the work, “Current issues were high on the agenda across all submissions, and the winners reflect this trend. It is clear that photographers are probing and commenting boldly upon some of the most prevalent and emotive topics of our time. This year’s winning five bodies of work are all highly distinctive. They are dynamic, sophisticated and often challenging. Perhaps, above all, what they appear to have in common is an acute level of social, personal and psychological engagement.”

Sophie Gerrard E-wasteland, 2006
E-wasteland addresses the growing problems of electronic waste in India. Shot in workshops and recycling yards on the outskirts of Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi, Sophie Gerrard’s photographs look at this hazardous illegal industry.

Dana Popa Not Natasha, 2006
Not Natasha traces the tragically fractured and damaged lives of young girls and women caught up in human trafficking for prostitution within Europe, by focussing on women who originate from the Republic of Moldova. Natasha is a nickname given to prostitutes and sex trafficked girls hate it.

Moira Lovell The After School Club, 2006-07
The After School Club series shows young women taken from school-themed nightclubs and returned, still wearing their revellers’ outfits, to their school gates. Lovell shows how context and setting of a subject can radically alter perception and meaning.

Kevin Newark Protoplasm, 2005-06
In Protoplasm Kevin Newark finds transcendent possibilities in the most common of things, having photographed plastic bags cast adrift in the canals of East London. His photographs illustrate the pressing current issues about waste and its knock-on global effects.

Edmund Kevill-Davies Puppet Love, 2006-07
Edmund Kevill-Davies’ humorous series Puppet Love explores the special relationship a ventriloquist shares with his puppet. These portraits feature some of the last remaining practising ventriloquists in the UK, who are fast being made redundant. The photographs aim to show how the dedication of so much of the ventriloquist’s time to his puppets affects home life and the relationship with other family members.

Selectors for the 2007 Jerwood Photography Awards were: Martin Barnes, Senior Curator of Photographs, Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Gloria Chalmers, Editor of Portfolio Magazine; Gayle Chong Kwan, Visual Artist; John Davies, Photographer / Artist; and Anne McNeill, Director of Impressions Gallery, Bradford.

Notes:
The Jerwood Photography Awards comprise three elements: five winners each receive Awards of £2,500, their work is exhibited in a group exhibition at Jerwood Space in London in November each year, followed by a tour, and is published in the November issue of Portfolio Magazine.

Submission is by registration between May and August. Applicants must submit between 6 and 10 photographs, accompanied by an artist’s statement and biography. Selection takes place in September by a panel of five eminent curators, critics and practitioners, and the announcement is at Jerwood Space in London each November.

The Jerwood Charitable Foundation is dedicated to responsible and imaginative funding of the visual and performing arts and other areas of human endeavour and excellence. It supports, amongst other things, the Jerwood Visual Arts Series and brings together the Jerwood Photography Awards, Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Sculpture Prize, Jerwood Applied Arts and the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Each exhibition creates an overview of current debate and practice in each of these fields.

Portfolio Magazine is an award-winning magazine of contemporary photographic art with an international subscription base. It publishes new and previously unpublished photography created or exhibited in the UK, accompanied by specially commissioned essays in a collectable bi-annual publication (published in May and November). Portfolio is a showcase for the most innovative and engaging photography and is an indispensable source of information for photographers, teachers and curators, as well as anyone with a serious interest in photography. For further information contact Gloria Chalmers, Editor, Portfolio Magazine editor@portfoliocatalogue.com and 0131 220 9101.
www.portfoliocatalogue.com