We are delighted to support Laura El-Tantawy’s ‘Beyond Here is Nothing’ at Seen Fifteen Gallery, part of Peckham 24 – a 24hr celebration of contemporary photography in Peckham during Photo London week.
About Beyond Here Is Nothing at Seen Fifteen Gallery:
Born to Egyptian parents in England, Laura El-Tantawy has lived different periods of her life in the West and the Middle East. These fusions of place, culture and identity are a source of inspiration and enlightenment for the artist, but equally they are a source of unsettling anxiety and feelings of homelessness.
“ For much of my life home has been an abstract place far away from my reach” Laura comments.
With Beyond Here is Nothing, Laura returns to her original subject matter to contemplate the feelings of rootlessness, identity and cultural clashes that underpin her search for where to call home. Shot exclusively on her iPhone she captures abstract glimpses of life on different continents – which she refers to as a photographic meditation’. Her style is poetic and impressionistic, reminiscent through the use of blur and colour of Saul Leiter’s atmospheric photographs of 1950s New York. Her tools are light, shadow and the natural elements – which she uses to pull the viewer from the West to the East, and back again. Grey puddles, reflected clouds and fallen cherry-blossom flowers signify a moment in El-Tantawy’s London. Orange haze, palm trees and elegant
colonial architecture signify a different moment in Cairo. A series of cloudscapes metaphorically hint at broader existential questions about what lies beyond any individual’s notion of home.
Works will be presented as prints and projections in a multimedia installation. The exhibition is also part of Peckham 24 – a 24 hour festival of contemporary photography during Photo London 2017. Genesis are proud to have supported Laura’s exhibition with our extensive Exhibition Printing and Installation Services.
About Laura El-Tantawy:
Laura El-Tantawy is an Egyptian photographer who currently lives in London. She was born in England to Egyptian parents. She attended high school in Saudi Arabia, started university in Cairo and finished her first degree in the United States. She holds an MA in Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster in London (2011). The experience of living between East and West for much of her life informs her work. She is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including FOAM Talent in 2012 and winner of the Best Photo Book Public Vote 2015 at Fotobookfestival Kassel, Germany. In 2016 Laura El-Tantawy was short-listed for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize for her selfpublished book, In The Shadow of the Pyramids.
Opening Party at Seen Fifteen Gallery
Thursday 11 May 2017 – 18:00 – 21:00
Bussey Building Unit B1.1
Peckham
London
SE15 3SN
Laura El-Tantawy: Beyond Here Is Nothing Exhibition
12 May 2017 – 4 June 2017
Seen Fifteen Gallery
Bussey Building Unit B1.1
Peckham
London
SE15 3SN