Much has been written about the veracity of photography; the photographer as detached observer, and photography's role in changing the world.
In his review of "Everything was Moving", Michael Glover in the Independent argues that photography has lost its direction and become "prostituted as a means of visual exchange". He suggests a return to the past when "the most important consequences of fearless photographic practice was to tell the truth about power".
Whatever we think about what photography is, isn't, should be, what is intriguing about this exhibition, which at its heart is based on ideas of history and story telling, is curator Kate Bush's selection of 12 photographers who through their own experience, offer not simply a snapshot of their history and the turbulent decades of the 1960s and 70s but as importantly present a visual interpretation of what they saw. The role of photography Bush suggests is not to "merely illustrate the world, it articulates it".
From the conceptual practice of Boris Mikhailov, saturated colour of William Eggelston to the gritty realism of Bruce Davidson and Larry Burrows, this exhibition is as much about the history of photography as it is about the history of the 1960s and 70s.
Graciela Iturbide's Angel Woman, Sonora Desert, America, 1979.
Everything Was Moving runs to 13th January 2013.
