Urban Expose

Stepping off the unassuming Jericho back street into the interesting art gallery that is Art Jericho is always a pleasure, and never fails to be full of surprise.

A photography exhibition by Gerry Badger, acclaimed contemporary photography critic, is currently on show at the gallery until April 10. Having worked as a writer alongside, and with, some of the world’s leading photographers, such as Martin Parr and John Gossage, his articles in the photographic press have helped deepen understanding of modern photography.

Perhaps lesser known, however, is Badger’s own photographic practice.

Badger, born amid the glamorous environs of suburban Northampton, trained as an architect, later turning his attention to photography, and it seems, developing an obsessive approach to documenting the quotidian existence of back street eventualities, or lack of.

The work displayed in PHOTOGRAPHS: London/New York don’t appear to be of very much at all.

They are not dramatic or hugely romantic landscapes, nor are they snapshots taken on the hoof; moreover impeccably composed, loving portraits of the cities that we inhabit. Each and every image exudes a wonderful, yet slightly unnerving, unsentimental serenity.

Void of human existence the images show the shabby aftermath of activity, or wait quietly, for something to happen, a brawl to break out, a bobby on the beat to emerge from around the corner, perhaps.

The absence of human personality permeates the architecture and the viewer is caused to turn his attentions to the residue of human existence; a tightly-wrapped tattoo of police tape tells of battles fought, won and abandoned, a half cocked pub sign hangs off the wall with a lack of sobriety.

The exhibition possesses an incredible sense of intimacy, almost to the degree of surveillance. The images show life through the eyes of the local inhabitants, be they vermin or human. Like a crust-less cucumber sandwich, they are refreshing to view, and so far from the soft-focused, sepia-toned postcards of Oxford’s dreaming spires currently being dusted down and put on display by every newspaper agent in town.

While the images undeniably doff their cap to the grim reality of urban decay and changing times, they also posses a sense of a make-believe paradise, a coffee-stained grappling with ambitions of grandeur, a peculiar pan-Atlantic patriotism, an inherent sense of the forces of nature taking hold wherever possible.

It’s clear that Badger’s training as an architect, and possibly/probably his early years in Northampton have informed the quiet critiques that he now creates and curates through the locations in which he chooses to exhibit his work.

And the images in this exhibition appear perfectly placed as the light determinedly streams in across the schoolyard and through the windows of Art Jericho illuminating Breakfast at Mario’s, most of which is printed on paper and stuck to the wall with a feeling of knowingly delicate disregard. The green smudge of an aerosol is echoed on the ‘living art’ walls of Art Jericho, and my thoughts turn to the notion of life as art – art as life, and to the fact this is a quietly brilliant exhibition, in every single sense.

* The exhibition runs until April 10 at Art Jericho, 6 King Street, Oxford, and is open Wednesday to Saturday 10am-5pm, or by appointment Admission is free