"Luc Delahaye: Photographs"
2004-02-05 until 2005-05-03
National Museum of Photography, Film & Television
West Yorkshire, , UK United Kingdom

The first major UK show for Magnum photographer Luc Delahaye includes the UK premiere of a series of monumental panoramic photographs offering radically unfamiliar perspectives on contemporary world events. From Afghanistan and the Middle East to Ground Zero and the UN these images take us beyond the fragmented details of the media viewpoint to give a fuller, detached view.

From the haunting and humanizing image of a dead, young Taliban warrior to the tiny figures among the rubble of the Jenin refugee camp, the works invoke grand themes. Familiar because of their reference to 19th century war photographs and the tradition of history paintings, they are also utterly contemporary visually and conceptually. Transcending the frenzy of news and of the moment, distilled and serene, these are photographs of awesome range and beauty.

Gallery Two, which will receive its official launch for the opening of the show, will host Winterreise, a melancholy, sometimes harrowing road trip across the stark landscapes of contemporary Russia. In glowing colours Winterreise illuminates lives lived in darkness.

Twice winner of the Robert Capa Gold Medal, as a photojournalist Luc has reported from nearly two decades of conflicts. Parallel to this he has become seriously established as a photographic artist and brings this aesthetic to his documentary work, be it his covert photography on the Paris Metro or images of those caught in the aftermath of conflict or economic catastrophe. His portraits of the homeless featured in the NMPFT's 2001 exhibition, In a Lonely Place.

IMAGE
Luc Delahaye
Baghdad #4, 2003,
© Luc Delahaye
Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery and Magnum Photos

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