Venice Biennale 2013 - photography

The theme of lifelong dedication to cataloging through art was clear in the work of 

J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere (b 1930 Nigeria). He produced over 5,000 images of the hairstyles and head wrappings of Nigerian women -starting  an the late 60's. An excellent summary of it is here

There was an amusing collection by Linda Fregni Nagler of amateur and commercial photogapghs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection on show was called Hidden Mother and consists of nearly 1,000 original images of babies being held by figures who are hidden but visible in the background.

Further information here

Here are two of our favoutites

The work (below) by  Laurie Simmons and Allan McCollum  The Actual Photos 1985 was intriguing. 

The figures that were photographed were model railroad figures no bigger than a worn down eraser.

A link to Laurie Simmons' website is here

These images collected by Norbert Ghisoland (1878 - 1939) were very moving - see more about him here.

In short, he was Belgian, and worked as a photographer in a coal mining area of Belgium and he left behind 90,000 photographs - on glass plates! Here are some examples from the exhibition.