This exhibition features the photography of Norman McBeath. After capturing and developing twenty-five shots of Oxford’s most loved architectural hotspots, this black-and-white photography will prove to be one of the central exhibitions in the city this summer.
Norman McBeath is no stranger to the world of professional photography. His portraits are held by the National Portrait Galleries in London and Edinburgh and his commission by the British Council for the ‘Beyond Beirut’ exhibition was presented across the globe (London, the Middle East and North Africa). Of course, he lived in Oxford for many years and so, he knows well of the uniqueness of the local architecture, and more importantly, the city’s transformation by night.
Although I am no fan of the rooted traditions of “architectural art” or “realist” moments in artworks, both of which seem to be McBeath’s focal point for this showing, I felt the work offered an intensive depth beyond the ‘ordinary.’ As novelist, Jeanette Winterson writes in her introduction to the exhibition: “The atomic truth of our existence is best understood at night. We are solid; we are wavering, changing, multiple. The reassurance of the objects is an illusion.” In sum, this black-and-white night photography does carefully undo the casual presuppositions and observations of Oxford’s architecture in the daylight.
My favourites include the romantic Bridge of Sighs with heavy use of dazzling lamplight, the picture of Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre alive and haunted with windows of perfect white-light, and the shot of the early seventeenth century Jesus College Chapel with an anarchist sign and two bicycles propped against its walls. Through counter-daylight, through posing history against the modern, through carefully capturing the lamplight ricocheting beneath the Bridge of Sighs, this photographer paints unambiguously real shots; real shots which are then undermined by the night and conditions of darkness.
‘Oxford at Night’ offers a refreshingly eye-catching exhibition of Oxford’s comfortable architectural ether as it is drawn towards its gothic transformation in the shadows of the city by night.
Norman McBeath is no stranger to the world of professional photography. His portraits are held by the National Portrait Galleries in London and Edinburgh and his commission by the British Council for the ‘Beyond Beirut’ exhibition was presented across the globe (London, the Middle East and North Africa). Of course, he lived in Oxford for many years and so, he knows well of the uniqueness of the local architecture, and more importantly, the city’s transformation by night.
Although I am no fan of the rooted traditions of “architectural art” or “realist” moments in artworks, both of which seem to be McBeath’s focal point for this showing, I felt the work offered an intensive depth beyond the ‘ordinary.’ As novelist, Jeanette Winterson writes in her introduction to the exhibition: “The atomic truth of our existence is best understood at night. We are solid; we are wavering, changing, multiple. The reassurance of the objects is an illusion.” In sum, this black-and-white night photography does carefully undo the casual presuppositions and observations of Oxford’s architecture in the daylight.
My favourites include the romantic Bridge of Sighs with heavy use of dazzling lamplight, the picture of Bodleian Library and Sheldonian Theatre alive and haunted with windows of perfect white-light, and the shot of the early seventeenth century Jesus College Chapel with an anarchist sign and two bicycles propped against its walls. Through counter-daylight, through posing history against the modern, through carefully capturing the lamplight ricocheting beneath the Bridge of Sighs, this photographer paints unambiguously real shots; real shots which are then undermined by the night and conditions of darkness.
‘Oxford at Night’ offers a refreshingly eye-catching exhibition of Oxford’s comfortable architectural ether as it is drawn towards its gothic transformation in the shadows of the city by night.