Then and There, Here and Now: Peter Anderson’s Rarely-Seen ’80s
Working closely with his subjects – many of whom have since become household names – Peter Anderson's photographs capture the energy of an era when music, fashion and politics first collided. It is a time that is still deeply influential today.
Anderson’s huge, five foot by four foot photographic prints currently sell alongside works by Warhol, Basquiat and Banksy. They reflect a fascination with what is now called “Urban Art” that started when the Royal College funded his first trip to New York, where he made iconic images of early hip-hop street style.
Then and There, Here and Now is a new exhibition that includes portraits - some never before seen - made while Anderson was a staff photographer at New Musical Express. The subjects represent a Who’s Who of music, including Madonna, Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger, Tom Waits, Run DMC, Marvin Gaye, Paul Weller and Blur’s Damon Albarn. A young Bono stands with fists raised, ready to take on the world as it turned out. The Clash’s late Joe Strummer gazes intently into the lens in a haunting portrait taken on London train tracks.
Anderson’s work is concerned with energy, often translated into movement. Far from the careful, artful poses that are often characterise the image-conscious 80s, these spontaneous shots reveal the sheer vitality of the era. In retrospect it becomes a blur of ideas.
From music, Anderson moved on to other areas. His portraits of film directors and actors, including Lindsay Anderson, Robert Altman and John Hurt have been the subject of an exhibition. His shots of one of his heroes, J.G.Ballard, presage a Ballardian interest in the car as metaphor. Frieze magazine described a previous Anderson exhibition as “a passionate exploration of the world of high performance cars in which landscape, individuals and vehicles were joined in religious ecstasy.” Some of this work will be shown at Then and There, Here and Now, together with more recent work that spans powerful portraits of young men serving in the armed forces, and photography of found objects made directly on old Devere and Lietz enlargers, in the experimental spirit of early art photography, characterised by Man Ray.
The Observer’s music writer Paul Morley, Anderson’s colleague at NME in the 80s, has written the introduction to the accompanying publication.
Links http://www.photopeteranderson.com/ http://www.pymca.com http://www.wearetbc.com
Listings Details Peter Anderson Photographs. Then and There, Here and Now
1st September – 26th September 2010
Art at The Book Club, 100 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4RH
PRIVATE VIEW: Wednesday 1st September 6pm – midnight Free exhibition.
