Simon Annand, The Half, Exhibition

21st Feb 2012

0 comments

Image by Simon Annand

Exhibition: 24th Feb – 8th April 2012
Private View: 23rd February 2012 / RSVP charlotte.sluter@ideageneration.co.uk
Idea Generation Gallery, 11
Chance Street, London, E2 7JB

The Idea Generation Gallery is holding an Exhibition of photographer Simon Annand, who for over 25 years has been given unprecedented access to the secret backstage world of London’s West End, shooting everything from Chekhov to Panto. This spring, Idea Generation Gallery will showcase a stunning exhibition of his dazzling photographs, including shots from his 2008 book The Half, as well as a series of new and unseen images of some of the world’s most illustrious stage actors.

“For anyone to go on stage and perform live in front of an audience requires considerable bravura and skill. To repeat this night after night, and to keep it fresh, the theatre actor also needs to be highly disciplined and self-possessed.

Each evening an actor enters the building as themselves but will go on the stage as somebody-else. To achieve this transformation, a dressing room is provided, which allows him or her to make the psychological negotiation that is required between themselves and the fictional character.

To photograph actors when they are "getting into character" is to see them at their most photogenic as you can see why they have been attracted to this particular thrill of becoming another.

In a world which increasingly allows us to have a “second chance”, live performance is a unique hand-made piece of work, which is created in front of you and cannot rely on another take, as in film, or digital correction if something goes wrong. The performer is therefore very exposed and there is something endlessly romantic and heroic about it.”

- Simon Annand