Shutter cubs

It’s the diversity of the work you notice about Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed. From classic 16×20 framed prints to photographs wallpapering the gallery, and from slides to videos to Photoshopped strangeness, the fledgling photographers in The Photographers’ Gallery graduate show reach across the art form. Curator Clare Grafik says the challenge of hanging the work, a total of 70 pieces, was to coral the contrasts and still leave each room to breathe. ‘There’s no theme or narrative to the hang,’ she says. ‘We just wanted to give each piece its own space.’ Fresh Faced showcases the work of BA and MA students who have graduated in the past year from UK colleges. All take part via an open submission to the gallery’s microsite, and there’s a blind selection, with the judging panel told neither the identity of the artist nor where they went to college. ‘Equal for everyone,’ as Grafik puts it. From 170 entrants, the judges – artist Melanie Manchot, critic Sarah Kent, gallery director Brett Rogers and Victoria & Albert Museum curator of photographs Marta Weiss – chose work from 25 artists to form a show that’s spread over the venue’s two galleries. If you miss the event, you can see the on-line hang, although the installation itself is worth catching. ‘The presentation of the work changes your perception of it,’ says Grafik.


Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed runs from 21 June to 6 July at The Photographers’ Gallery, Great Newport Street, London WC1

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