Bystander

London based photographers Kerry Simmons and Jamie Ashman invite you to their first joint show ‘Bystander’. They both work within the genre of portraiture and collaborate on other works but for this show that is where the similarity ends. They present two separate bodies of work and share the same gallery space for Photomonth East.

Photographer Kerry Simmons revisits her Essex roots and turns her lens onto her estranged family. A childhood treasure lost sparks a journey from digital to analogue in an attempt to re-establish links with the past.

Questioning the role photography has played in the archiving of identity and memory; she has taken a century old portrait and traced the linage to the present day. Inviting Isabella Gom’s living female relatives to stand for a studio portrait and asking them the question ‘What (if anything) will this image say about you a century from now?’

Dedicated to the memory of a friend murdered in 2009, Jamie Ashman’s project ‘Hackneyed' documents friends and acquaintances all living in the borough. The project focuses on the young male inhabitants, who may face limited opportunities and, in some cases, the lure of gang culture.
Ashman’s imagery rarely leaves the estates, portraying a Hackney divided into small high-rise settlements. These colour-coded areas represent boundaries; these are places the inhabitants may struggle to leave. This is often due to lack of work, or even personal choice: to venture into another area, even if relatively local, may risk confrontation with rival gangs.
Hackneyed adjective: Made commonplace, used so often as to be trite, dull, and stereotyped

Both photographers are working with medium format film and can be contacted via their websites.