John Riddy’s photographs are distinguished by a combination of poetic delicacy and formal precision which has been evident since his earliest pictures made in London in the late 1980s.
Working consistently in series, Riddy has created collective studies of urban architecture and rural landscapes in countries such as Japan, Italy, South Africa and the United States, in every case exploiting the capacity for still images to render the everyday both factual and transcendent. The starting point for much of his work has been the relationship between photography and the history of art and architecture.
John Riddy: Photographs presents all of Riddy’s major series and, like a volume of collected poems, each image is distinct and of itself yet linked to its counterparts by technical skill and a finely tuned sensibility. Many of the photographs in this volume were exhibited in a recent retrospective at the De Pont Museum.
This event is in collaboration with Steidl and Frith Street Gallery.
Biographies
John Riddy
John Riddy is one of the most distinctive voices in British contemporary photography. Riddy has consistently worked in series, using methods and formats that allow for silent and complex descriptions. Riddy’s works are held in major public collections including Tate, The Government Art Collection, The Arts Council Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and De Pont Museum, Tilburg.
Liz Jobey
Liz Jobey is a writer and editor. She has formerly worked in national newspapers and was the editor of the Independent on Sunday Review and literary editor of the Guardian. Between 1994 and 1998 she was associate editor at Scalo, the photographic publishers, based in Zurich. Between 1998 and 2009 she was deputy editor and subsequently associate editor of Granta, the literary magazine. Since 2010 she has been an associate editor at the Financial Times Weekend Magazine and also works as a freelance writer and editor, principally on photographic books.