Lewis Bush (photographer) explained

Lewis K. Bush (born 1988) is a British photographer, writer, curator and educator.[1] [2] He aims "to draw attention to forms of invisible power that operate in the world", believing that "power is always problematic" because it is inherently "arbitrary and untransparent".[3]

Bush's The Memory of History (2012), is about Europe's forgetfulness of its unresolved past and that past's re-emergence, as evidenced in the time of the European debt crisis;[4] The Camera Obscured (2012) is about the absurdity of security guards preventing people from photographing buildings; Metropole (2015) is "an architectural critique on the changing face of London";[5] War Primer 3 (2013) is a reworking of Broomberg and Chanarin's book War Primer 2; and Shadows of the State (2018) is about numbers stations.[6] All are self-published apart from Shadows of the State and the 2018 version of Metropole. The Memory of History and Metropole have been shown in solo exhibitions in London.

Life and work

Bush was born in 1988 in London. He studied history at the University of Warwick and gained a master's degree in documentary photography from London College of Communication (LCC).[7] He lectures on photojournalism and documentary photography at LCC.[8]

In 2012, for The Memory of History (2012),[9] Bush travelled through ten European Union countries to examine the effects of the European debt crisis, in the context of Europe's turbulent history of crises that are forgotten, only later to resurface. Bush intends to show that process happening again, where unresolved history is reappearing "with the economic pain of the present", using photographs that show "connections between history and the present".

For The Camera Obscured (2012) he set up a camera obscura outside sensitive sites around London and used it to draw them until challenged by security guards. Bush "attempted to engage these personnel in a discussion about art history, highlighting the blurred boundaries between images made by mechanical means and those drawn by hand, and by doing so demonstrating the absurdity of their objections." The work is also about "the intersections of art and photography, and the question of where the balance lies between individual rights and collective security."[10]

His War Primer 3 (2013 and 2015) is a reworking of Broomberg and Chanarin's War Primer 2 (2011),[11] itself an appropriation of Bertolt Brecht's pacifist book War Primer (1955). Brecht's book was a "critique of the relationship between war and photography", using photographs and poems; Bush's ebook, in critiquing Broomberg and Chanarin's book, is about "inequality, labour and capital."[12] The title recalls a primer, a first textbook for teaching of reading.

His Metropole (2015) zine[13] and corresponding book (2018) is "an architectural critique on the changing face of London", "intended to highlight how large swathes of the city are being developed so quickly that they have become unrecognisable – a move he believes is aggressively wiping out London's history and diversity."

His Shadows of the State (2018) is a book about numbers stations,[14] [15] [16] [17] [18] that "seeks to visualise, locate and expose many of these stations".[19] It is about the "line of reasoning [. . . ] that the only way to defend democracy is by having something inherently undemocratic at its core." Rather than taking photographs, Bush collated write-ups, publicly available satellite imagery, spectrograms and maps.

His book Depravity's Rainbow (2023) is about early rocket development in Nazi Germany including the V-2 ballistic missile and the way that many engineers involved in these projects were recruited by Allied countries after the war and went on to play a major role in post-war rocket development including at NASA during the Apollo project. The book predominantly focuses on Wernher von Braun.

As well as books, Bush has published around twenty zines containing smaller projects. For example, during the UK's first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Bush forensically exposed and photographed fingerprints present on goods he bought in shops and online. The work is about the potential for contamination of consumers with SARS-CoV-2. It is also about exposing the presence of the usually hidden labourers, vulnerable because of working in distribution at a time of social distancing.[20] [21]

From 2011 to 2016 he wrote and edited a blog about photography, Disphotic. He also written about photography for other publications including The British Journal of Photography, The Art Newspaper, Frieze, and publications by Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and Fotomuseum Antwerp.[22]

Publications

Publications by Bush

Smaller publications by Bush

Publication with contribution by Bush

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Exhibitions curated by Bush

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. "Lewis Bush". Lewis Bush. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  2. News: In pictures: Memory of History. 17 September 2014 . 28 February 2018 . .
  3. "Biography". Lewis Bush. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  4. Alan Knox, "Lewis Bush: The Memory of History". Hotshoe. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  5. Web site: How London's new buildings show how the city is facing terminal decline. 9 December 2015 . 27 February 2018 . Lewis . Bush . .
  6. News: Numbers stations: The 'spy radio' that anyone can hear. 10 February 2018 . 27 February 2018 . .
  7. News: In pictures: A new vision of London. 16 March 2015 . 27 February 2018 . .
  8. "Lewis Bush". London College of Communication. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  9. Lauren Hansen, "Europe's troubled past comes to light: How a photographer's journey through the European debt crisis stands the test of another difficult time". The Week. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  10. "The Camera Obscured (2012)". Lewis Bush. Accessed 1 March 2018.
  11. Helen Trompeteler, "Graduate Photography Online 2013". Source (photography magazine). Accessed 27 February 2018.
  12. "War Primer 3 (2013-15)". Lewis Bush. Accessed 1 March 2018.
  13. "Requiem For London: Lewis Bush's Metropole". The Photographers' Gallery, 11 November 2015. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  14. Web site: Bruno Bayley's Best of 2017. 26 December 2017 . 27 February 2018 . Bruno . Bayley . .
  15. Web site: Lewis Bush's Shadows of the State visualises secret radio signals. 13 November 2017 . 27 February 2018 . Eoin . Murray . .
  16. Web site: Lewis Bush : Shadows of the State. 27 February 2018 . . 17 January 2018 .
  17. Web site: Here's Where Cold War 'Numbers Stations' Broadcast Spies' Secret Codes. 11 September 2017 . 27 February 2018 . Laura . Mallonee . .
  18. Web site: Radio's role in winning the Cold War. 17 February 2018 . 27 February 2018 . Kate . Chisholm . .
  19. Web site: The Mysterious Radio Stations Broadcasting Secret Messages. 26 September 2017 . 27 February 2018 . Bruno . Bayley . .
  20. Web site: 2020-11-07. I Fingerprinted Everything I Bought to See If It Had Been Contaminated. www.vice.com. 28 September 2020 .
  21. Web site: 2020-11-07. Latent Labour: a photo series on shopping during the pandemic. www.newstatesman.com. 6 November 2020 .
  22. "Biography". Lewis Bush. Accessed 16 April 2023.
  23. The author's page about The Memory of History can be seen here
  24. The essay "The History of Memory" is available here as a PDF in the author's site
  25. The author's page about The Camera Obscured can be seen here
  26. The author's page about War Primer 3 can be seen here and can be downloaded as a PDF here
  27. The author's page about Shadows of the State can be seen here
  28. The author's page about Metropole can be seen here
  29. The author's page about A Model Continent can be seen here
  30. Web site: Inside The European Union Theme Park. 11 April 2016 . 27 February 2018 . Tom . Seymour . .
  31. Amy Frearson, "Abstract photography by Lewis Bush chronicles the "aggressive redevelopment" of London". Dezeen, 15 March 2015. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  32. "Lewis Bush / Lewis Bush: Metropole". PhotoMonitor, May 2016. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  33. News: A City of dust. 13 July 2016 . 27 February 2018 . Phil . Coomes . .
  34. News: Bailiwick. Express. 2018-09-24. Finance is.... Bailiwick Express.
  35. Web site: What to see at Format, Britain's biggest photography festival. 10 March 2015 . 27 February 2018 . Diane . Smyth . .
  36. "The Alternative Magna Carta Festival 13th June". Free Word Centre. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  37. "LCC Festival of Journalism and Art: Very Now". London College of Communication. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  38. "Images of Power: 2-11 September 2016". Seen Fifteen. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  39. Web site: Light Eye Mind Gallery Takes a Look at Forced Migration. 25 November 2016. 28 February 2018 . Diane . Smyth . .
  40. "It's Gonna Be Great.". Peckham 24. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  41. "Flash Forward 2017". Magenta Foundation. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  42. "2018 International Photographer in Residence named". Bailiwick Express, 10 February 2018. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  43. "Focusing on the finance industry: Lewis Bush has been announced as this year’s Archisle Jersey International Photographer in Residence.". Jersey Evening Post, 26 February 2018. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  44. "2018 International Photographer in Residence Announced". Archisle Project. Accessed 28 February 2018.

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