Profile
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KarenMcQuaid Karen McQuaid, curator of the Photographers’ Gallery, is in the hot seat this month fielding our questions about this world-first institution INTERVIEW
© Anna Dannemann
We’re a broad church so to speak, and that means we have a wide audience who approach the work from varied perspectives; I still get a kick from standing anonymously in the space a day or two after an opening and listening to responses to the shows. What are some of the most memorable exhibitions you’ve curated at the gallery? I’d say Geraldo de Barros was a huge highlight: he is not very well known in the UK and he had such a fascinating and diverse career ranging from industrial design to abstract painting. We showed the experimental photographs he made as a young artist and the very poignant collages he worked on before his death. What was the most popular exhibition? In early 2014 we did three shows concurrently of bodies of photographic work by key cultural figures of the 20th century who were not primarily known as photographers: Andy Warhol, William Burroughs and David Lynch. Their combined cultural weight brought many visitors through the door, but also audiences from the worlds of literature and film who may not have visited us otherwise. How is the gallery funded? A third of our activities are funded by the Arts Council of England, a third by our own enterprises (café, bookshop and print sales) and a third from individual giving, membership, patronage and sponsorship. With potential funding cuts we need to remain agile and responsive in order to remain a space that is accessible for the wide, engaged and growing audiences we continue to build.
only able to happen in a medium specific space. Through the Media Wall, our digital exhibition space, we address the changes in the status and circulation of photography in a broader cultural context. It was the first of its kind in the world, why do you think it took so long for someone to found a photography-only gallery? If you consider the activities of Limelight Photographic Gallery in Greenwich Village through the 1950s and the fact that MoMA, NY established its photography department from 1940 it does seem incredible. It’s hard to say why, but it is clear that the scholarship and seriousness with which photography was treated in the UK in the academy and the cultural institutions took a while to catch up with New York or Paris. Keith Arnatt’s provocative essay Sausages and Food , published in 1982 as critique of Tate’s acquisition policy in relation to photography articulates the frustrations of the time. How long have you been involved with the Photographers’ Gallery and what does your role as curator entail? I’ve been in my post as curator since 2009, and I worked on our talks and events programme before that. With the scale of the team and our integrated approach to programming I was very involved from the beginning in a wide range of the Gallery’s activities, which is one of the great advantages of working in a medium-sized gallery. My role as curator is to feed into our team discussions, planning the future programme and to facilitate the exhibitions that I’m responsible for. This involves everything from formulating a narrative for the show, planning the installation, production, insurance, framing and shipping of the work. I also work with co-curators, lending institutions and our own team to provide a framework around each exhibition that allows our audience to engage with ideas and concerns surrounding the work. There is a lot more besides this, but seeking new practices and developing ways of thinking about photography is, I suppose, the most crucial. What do you enjoy most about your job? Involvement with great photographers and photographic projects I feel should be shared. This can range from working directly with an established photographer on a large mid- career show at the Gallery, to meeting with a photographer with a small scale book at a nascent stage and helping it find form through discussion. Working creatively with the artists and my colleagues here to practically facilitate and deliver an installation that is as considered and complete as possible, and the sense of shared achievement when it comes off.
Years in the photo industry: 10 Current location: London Last picture taken: Yesterday Hobbies: Needlepoint BIOGRAPHY
The gallery set out to establish photography as a serious art form, do you think it has helped to achieve that? The Photographers’ Gallery was set up by Sue Davies who had been working at the Institute of Contemporary Arts where she saw the potential for photography exhibitions. She decided that the UK needed a dedicated space for photography and went about securing our previous home on Great Newport Street which was opened to the public in 1971. It is important to note that photography’s position within the cultural landscape was very different then, with photography placed within the applied/commercial domain and exhibitions of photography not being very common. The Gallery was set up to provide a platform for photographers through exhibitions and to be a centre for the consideration of the medium through its education programme, talks, events, book and print sales. The Gallery has continued to introduce key international photographers to the UK and champion UK based talent. This history and endeavours like our annual photography prize, founded in 1996, all could be said to have helped establish photography within a more receptive cultural landscape. The fact that we are medium specific allows us a lot of breadth in terms of what types of photography we show. We dedicate ourselves to photography in all its forms, applied and vernacular as well as the photo book and the contemporary art photograph. For example we mounted an exhibition of photographs from the archive of the London Fire Brigade which presented wonderfully odd photographs from training manuals, firefighters at their Christmas parties and documentary shots of incidents and their aftermath throughout the London boroughs. It was a treat of a show and perhaps one that was Is there still a place for an exclusively photographic gallery? When youwere younger, what did you want to bewhen you grewup? A foreign correspondent Dogs or cats? Neither Toast or cereal? Both Email or phone call? Email for work, phone calls for friends
I still get a kick fromstanding anonymously in the space a day or two after opening and listening to the responses to the show
π To find out more, go to www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk.
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Issue 16 | Photography News
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