Central to Andrew Jackson’s photography is a desire to observe and portray what he refers to as “contemporary human existence and the inherent paradoxes found within the collisions, transactions and dislocations that reveal themselves within the built environment.” All that it was…All that it is focuses on Jackson’s accomplished documentary photographic series (2006/07) produced during his second visit to Cape Town, South Africa in 2006.
It is estimated that by 2010, nearly three quarters of South Africa’s population will reside in its cities, and as Jackson opines “…for the first time the city will be the meeting place for the majority of its citizens and therefore the theatre where the nation’s anxieties will be enacted and lived.” These remarkable, and often disturbing, images are, amongst other things, concerned with extremes: extremes of violence, of wealth and of poverty. However, rather than seeking to merely dramatise or sensationalise his subjects, Jackson’s photographs - of people, places and objects - elicit a profound sense of humanity and empathy. Writers Steve Edwards & John Timberlake have noted: “…these beautifully composed images give a sense of Jackson’s careful sharing of space with the subject; his presence is communicated by his ability…to give a sense of each portrait being a pause in a conversation, rather than a passing grab.”
Reproduced at little more than postcard size, in the gallery, these austere and often disturbing images require viewing close-up, resulting in their diminutive scale intensifying, rather than diminishing this experience. Jackson’s photographs of Cape Town, not only touch upon scars of this country’s recent traumatic past, but also, his considered approach is such that it carefully draws attention to the politics of representation itself.
More +All that it was…All that it is
Recent photography by Andrew Jackson
30 January – 14 March 2009
Unit 2 Gallery,
London Metropolitan University