Another part of the V&A that we went together as a class was the exhibition 'Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography.' I have very limited knowledge about photography, but I liked this a lot. Floris Neususs's photograms reminded me of sumi ink paintings, like a splash of liquid shadow on a blank canvas. 'Be Right Back' was very clever; I saw the shadows first and it took me a couple extra seconds to realize that the chair over them was empty.
Susan Derges's 'Vessel No.3' was straightforward, it depicted frogspawn in a jam jar. There were nine images in total, documenting the stages of growth as the spawn became adult frogs. The presentation of the images felt academic at first, as if I were looking at the frogspawn in a petri dish. As I observed the gradual decrease in jar-inhabitants against the soft light used in the images, the work took on a quiet and contemplative quality. I didn't think much of it while I was standing in front of the work, but now that I type this entry I remember my reaction to Derges most clearly.
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