Charting his career from 1959 to 1996 and encompassing his fashion and portrait photography and moving-image work, it is a definitive profile of the man whose career spanned almost 40 years.
Its inception stretches back only 14 months to April 2015 when Donovan's wife - Diana, whom he met 1968 and raised two children with - approached Robin Muir to see if he wanted to curate a new comprehensive exhibition (Muir had previously curated an exhibition at the Museum of London in 2000 and most recently Vogue 100: A Century of Style).
"The first exhibition concentrated on Donovan's London photographs, the new one has a broader remit: to look at fashion, both men's and women's," Alex Anthony, the Terence Donovan Archive's archivist, told us from the North London loft space which is home to Donovan's art and artefacts. "He was there on the spot when the Sixties exploded into life and captured it all."
Diana herself has always been hands-on in respect of her husband's archive. "Going through the work was emotional and, at times, upsetting, but for the most of it it was so exciting because there are truly some pictures that take your breath away and so much of it has never been seen before," she explained.
Diana herself has always been hands-on in respect of her husband's archive. "Going through the work was emotional and, at times, upsetting, but for the most of it it was so exciting because there are truly some pictures that take your breath away and so much of it has never been seen before," she explained.
The time it has taken to pull together is remarkable, given that there were 800,000 to one million negatives and over 3,000 prints for Muir to select from.
Sponsorship of the exhibition comes from Ricoh Europe, who have gone the extra mile and given all members of its staff the opportunity to tap into their creative side and produce images using Donovan techniques. Visitors to the gallery will also have the chance to do this in the Ricoh Imagine Change Studio, where they can experiment with fashion portraiture and share with the gallery's artistic community, while the accompanying book that will be on sale makes for the ultimate keepsake of a master at work.
Terence Donovan: Speed Of Light in association with Ricoh runs from July 15 to September 25 at The Photographers' Gallery. Terence Donovan Portraits is published by Damiani at £35.
No comments:
Post a Comment