Exhibitions

- 'from Decommissioned Camera Series I, one of 400 images, 297mm x 210mm each'. Artist - Suzanne Mooney

DECOMMISSIONED CAMERA SERIES & OTHER WORKS

Suzanne Mooney

May 17 – June 15 2007

With wit, humour and a touch of obsession, Suzanne Mooney’s work focusses on the pleasures and perils of snap-shot photography. The centerpiece of the show is a breath-taking installation of over 400 images laid out from floor to ceiling in the main gallery space.  Each image depicts a single analogue camera that has been traded-in by its owner in part exchange for a new digital camera. Though they have been deemed obsolete, here in Mooney’s work they are celebrated. Mooney is fascinated by their part in the production of family albums, events and photographic moments. By focusing on the image-making apparatus her work becomes a topological journey through a fragment of photographic history but is also a comment on our throwaway society.

In other works, Mooney re-stages found photographs and other visual material. Make Love to the Camera, (2004-ongoing) is an expanding collection of black & white diagrammatic drawings found in photo-manuals depicting how to photograph the female nude. Shown in a slideshow format, the work depicts diagrams of semi-naked women in studio set-ups surrounded by lights, cameras and props. The piece denies the erotic aim of the originals and becomes a humorous, and at times disturbing, look at glamour photography.

In Found Photographers (2005-ongoing) Mooney casts a cool eye on the often fetishised apparatus of the camera. Displayed at an intimate scale on a digital screen, she presents a sequence of found images depicting (invariably male) photographers posing with their photographic equipment, or poised to shoot their subject. Taken out of their original context these images reconfigure the gaze, making the photographer the subject and object of the work.

About the artist:

Suzanne studied at DLIADT, Dublin before moving to London where she was awarded an MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in 2005. She has exhibited her work extensively including in group shows, Metropolis Rise: New Art from London in Shanghai and Beijing, 2006; Schema at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York 2006; Transform, Format 06, Derby 2006; PLUG at The County Hall Gallery, London 2006; Tonight Studio Voltaire, London 2004; and To be honest, Brighton Photo Biennial (2004). Solo exhibitions include Behind the Scenes, Ard Bia, Galway, 2007; Make Love to the Camera, Gallery for One, Dublin 2005; Through a Glass Darkly OPW, Dublin 2005. Suzanne also has two forthcoming solo exhibitions include Viewfinder Gallery, London Oct 2007 and BCA Gallery, Bedford in 2008. Suzanne was awarded the Gallery of Photography Artist’s Award for the current exhibition.

Further information about Suzanne and her work can be obtained from her personal website: www.suzannemooney.co.uk

Gallery of Photography is open: Tuesday - Saturday 11am-6pm and on Sunday from 1pm-6pm

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