Exhibitions

Peter Fraser – Lost For Words

Mar 13 - Apr 24 2010

Ffotogallery recently commissioned the distinguished artist Peter Fraser to embark on a major new photographic project in Wales.

In Lost for Words he captures in a unique way the spirit of the country by visiting and recording many diverse sites of interest, working across Wales. As Fraser was born and grew up in Wales, the project has a particular significance in terms of his childhood memories.

The new photography signals a certain departure in that it relishes the artificial and illusory— the world of the museum, other worlds, model worlds. There is a dreamlike quality to many pictures as a result. Fraser’s art does not shout; it is subtle, descriptive, attentive, enigmatic, private and often unexpected. His photography asks questions about how we relate to the world, and the world that is opened up here is often strange, replete with fantasies, illusions and fears.

Fraser has now stopped using film and this work marks his turn to the digital, a process that has given him greater freedom and versatility— not in terms of manipulation, but in the facility and ease with which he can depict things in the world.

A special publication accompanying the exhibition features additional images and an essay by Mark Durden, Professor in Photography and Director of the European Centre for Photographic Research at University of Wales, Newport.

Peter Fraser: Born 1953 Cardiff, Wales, and attended schools in Cardiff, Glamorgan and the Rhondda Valley. He acquired his first camera at the age of 8 and after a false start studying Civil Engineering at 18, began studying photography at Manchester Polytechnic the following year. Graduated in 1976 after repeating 3rd year due to major illness while photographing in West Africa. Began working with a Plaubel Makina camera in 1982, which led to an exhibition with William Eggleston at the Anolfini, Bristol in 1984.

He then worked on several series of photographs, with support from the Arts Council, leading to a first publication, ‘Two Blue Buckets’, which in 1988 won the Bill Brandt Award in London). He subsequently published several new bodies of work including ‘Ice and Water’ 1993, ‘Deep Blue’ 1997, ‘Material’ 2002, and ‘Peter Fraser’ 2006. Fraser was shortlisted for the Citigroup International Photography Prize in 2004, and is currently a visiting lecturer at a number of British colleges and universities.