John Stezaker

John Stezaker wins DB Photography Prize 2012

3 September 2012

We’re usually good at guessing prizes but have to admit that we didn’t see this year’s DB Photography prize coming. We were so in love with Pieter Hugo’s Permanent Error that failed at our guess, but John Stezaker was our clear second choice of course!

Marriage (Film Portrait Collage (2007) by John Stezaker
Marriage (Film Portrait Collage (2007) by John Stezaker (all images via Saatchi Gallery & The Approach)

The previously-forgotten, now highly sought-after English artist gets this year’s  £30,000 from the annual DB Photography prize (the 2012 exhibition is about to finish and runs until Sunday) for his 2011 exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, focused around his vintage photo schizophrenia compositions.

Untitled (For Angus) Film Still Collage II, 2009 by John Stezaker (via The Approach)
Untitled (For Angus) Film Still Collage II, 2009 by John Stezaker (via The Approach)

John takes classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations and makes collages to give old images a new meaning by y adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together. His Mask & Marriage series are probably the most well-known and easily recognizable for those glamorous profiles mixed & mashed together creating the ultimate Hollywood star.

Marriage XV (2006) by John Stezaker
Marriage XV (2006) by John Stezaker

If only doctors had attempted to merge Bogarts with Bacalls….  oh wait… nature already did it… never mind, John Stezaker’s photography goes far beyond, and we celebrate his award. Congrats.

Old Mask VIII (2006) by John Stezaker
Old Mask VIII (2006) by John Stezaker
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DB Photography Prize 2012

14 July 2012

Just a few months after the re-opening of that photographic temple in southern London called the Photographers Gallery, their most anticipated and important exhibition of the year is now finally open to the public: The 4 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize nominees are showcasing and willing at the same time to become the winner of this year’s £30.000 prize which will be unveiled next September.

Muse (Film Portrait Collage) XIII 2012. © John Stezaker. Courtesy The Approach (image via Photographers gallery)
Muse (Film Portrait Collage) XIII 2012. © John Stezaker. Courtesy The Approach (image via Photographers gallery)

Pieter Hugo, Rinko Kawauchi, John Stezaker and Christopher Williams are the lucky 4 we’ve already talked about several times here  @ aqnb and whose works showcase a diversity of subject matter and photographic approaches, ranging from documentary photography and the everyday to the recontextualisation of found images and the conceptual.

Fachhochschule Aachen, Fachbereich Gestaltung, Studiengang- Visuelle (image via Photographers gallery)
Fachhochschule Aachen, Fachbereich Gestaltung, Studiengang- Visuelle (image via Photographers gallery)

Works that will then travel to Frankfurt for a quick exhibition from 14 September until 25 October 2012 and then to Berlin’s C/O Forum from 3 November until 13 January 2013. A whole summer to enjoy this free exhibition, Ghana’s capital city dumping grounds, vintage collages or luminous manipulations amongst others, a must visit happening this way.

Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana 2009
Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana 2009
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