Robin Friend Explained

Robin Friend
Birth Date:1983
Nationality:British-Australian
Occupation:Photographer
Website:robinfriend.co.uk

Robin Friend (born 1983) is a British-Australian photographer.[1] His book Bastard Countryside (2018),[2] brought together "15 years worth of exploration" the British Landscape with a large format view camera. Included in this publication by Loose Joints is an essay the landscape writer Robert Macfarlane.

Life

Friend was born in London, UK, but from an early age lived in Melbourne, Australia. He returned to live in England permanently with this family when he was 14. He went on to study photography at the University of Plymouth and the Royal College of Art. He has two children with his partner Seren Colley and they live in the town of Lewes, East Sussex.

Work

Bastard Countryside

Robin Friend's Bastard Countryside is an amalgamation of 15 years worth of work, journeying across the English countryside. Originally made for separate, unrelated projects, the pictures that make up this extensive body of work in time fused together to form this single, more expansive project. Published by Loose Joints in 2018. The title, Bastard Countryside, was a term first coined by French poet and novelist Victor Hugo in Les Misérables whilst describing the "city of Paris as an “amphibian”, stretching out into the countryside and devouring everything in its path",[3] “somewhat ugly but bizarre, made up of two different natures.”[4]

The project deals with the idea of the collision of the human and non-human. Through the meticulous use of his 5x4 large format view camera the photographs “are given heightened effect through exaggerations of colour and composition, embodying a friction between British pastoral ideals and present reality.”[5] Within scenes that feel like traditional landscapes, our ideas of it are intruded, often by pollution, decay and WWII debris in this “mixed-up meeting-zone of rural and urban; where city frays into country."[6]

Friend says “I see it almost as an anxious nature. We're all anxious about what the future holds and I feel like that is inherent in a lot of the pictures. I think that you couldn't be a human without being worried about the kind of planet we're leaving to our children.”[7]

Winged Bull in the Elephant Case

Winged Bull in the Elephant Case “is an immersive performance for the screen about preserving our cultural heritage in the face of violence and aggression."[8] At the start of the Second World War, the National Gallery's art collection was buried in the Manod slate mines in Snowdonia for safe keeping. Winged Bull in the Elephant Case “dramatises the journey of a lost painting that takes human form, as it strives to get back to the gallery."[9] This engaging piece combines various dance forms and was filmed underground in the National Gallery. The work features choreography by Wayne McGregor, Charlotte Edmonds, Botis Seva and Bonetics, performed by Company Wayne McGregor, Alessandra Ferri, Bonetics, and Far From The Norm. The production was written and directed by Robin Friend.

He had his first solo show at the National Gallery of London in 2018. It coincided with a film piece called Winged Bull in the Elephant Case he wrote and directed, as a collaboration with the choreographer Wayne McGregor. It told the story of the National Gallery during World War II when the galleries collection was hidden in a slate mine in North Wales.[10] [11] [12] [13] His ongoing project Bonfire Prayers explores what happens on Bonfire night in the town of Lewes, East Sussex. Commissions

In 2011 he photographed 120 artists for the Thames & Hudson book Sanctuary: British Artists and their Studios.[14] The book was followed by Art Studio America in 2013, d documenting the private worlds of 115 Americant living artists.

Publications

Bastard Countryside – published by Loose Joints with an essay by Robert Macfarlane.[15]

Awards

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Collections

Friend's work is held in the:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Muraben . Billie . Photographer Robin Friend on representing Britain's "bastard countryside" . It's Nice That . It's Nice That . 2020-03-16.
  2. Web site: Warner . Marigold . Bastard Countryside by Robin Friend . British Journal of Photography . British Journal of Photography . 2020-03-16.
  3. Web site: Warner . Marigold . Bastard Countryside by Robin Friend . British Journal of Photography . British Journal of Photography . 2020-08-14.
  4. Web site: The 'magical sadness' where nature meets the man-made . BBC . BBC Arts . 2020-08-14.
  5. Web site: IN PRINT: BASTARD COUNTRYSIDE - ROBIN FRIEND . Cultural Bulletin . Cultural Bulletin . 2020-08-14.
  6. Book: Greenhalgh . Adam . Cultural Bulletin Issue D 2020 . July 2020 . Antenne Books . London . 20 . 2020-08-14.
  7. Web site: Charles Wilson . Jacob . Dystopian shots of Britain's rural edgelands . Huck . Huck . 2020-08-14.
  8. Web site: McGregor . Wayne . WINGED BULL IN THE ELEPHANT CASE . Wayne McGregor . Studio Wayne McGregor . 2020-09-14.
  9. Web site: Winged Bull In The Elephant Case . Illuminations . Illuminations . 2020-09-14.
  10. Web site: Stubbs. David. Saturday's best TV: Performance Live: Winged Bull in the Elephant Case; Below the Surface. 2020-03-16. The Guardian.
  11. Web site: Manod: The Nation's Treasure Caves. 2020-03-16. The National Gallery. The National Gallery.
  12. Web site: Winged Bull in the Elephant Case. 2020-03-16. BBC. BBC.
  13. Web site: McGregor. Wayne. WINGED BULL IN THE ELEPHANT CASE. 2020-03-16. Wayne McGregor. Wayne McGregor.
  14. Web site: & Hudson. Thames. Sanctuary Britain's Artists and their Studios. 2020-03-16. Thames & Hudson. Thames & Hudson.
  15. Web site: Robin Friend - Bastard Countryside . Loose Joints . Loose Joints . 2020-03-16.
  16. Web site: EPF 2019 FINALIST . burn magazine . burn . 2020-07-27.
  17. Web site: Syngenta Photography Award . Syngenta . Syngenta . 2020-07-27.
  18. Web site: Manod: The Nation's Treasure Caves . The National Gallery . The National Gallery . 2020-07-27.
  19. Web site: "Bastard countryside" de Robin Friend . ImageSingulières . 2020-12-02.
  20. Web site: Robin Friend 266 - TOWER BLOCKS, EAST RESERVOIR, BASTARD COUNTRYSIDE . Royal Academy . Royal Academy . 2020-03-16.
  21. Web site: The Royal Photographic Society returns with its 161st International Photography Exhibition . Royal Albert Hall . Royal Albert Hall . 2020-03-16.
  22. Web site: THE SYNGENTA PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD EXHIBITION . Sommerset House . Sommerset House . 2020-03-16.
  23. Web site: 1221 - BIRCH & STEEL . Royal Academy . Royal Academy . 2020-03-16.
  24. Web site: Demimonde . Slate Projects . 2020-12-07.
  25. Web site: Summer Exhibition 2015: Royal Academy . The Glamorous Anorak . The Glamorous Anorak . 2020-03-16.
  26. Web site: London Burning: Portraits from a Creative City . ICA . ICA . 2020-03-16.
  27. Web site: Photography exhibition showcases hot new international talent . The Calvert Journal . The Calvert Journal . 2020-03-16.
  28. Web site: reGeneration2: tomorrow's photographers today . Photography-now . 2020-12-07.
  29. Web site: Photography: Passionate, fascinating editorial work from Robin Friend . Its Nice That . Its Nice That . 2020-03-16.
  30. Web site: Nudes, actors, Mennonites: the Taylor Wessing photographic portrait prize 2012 – in pictures . The Guardian . 2020-03-16.
  31. Web site: Immortal Nature at Edel Assanti Private View Wednesday 25th January 2012 . Fad Magazine . Fad Magazine . 2020-03-16.
  32. Web site: Fantômes et cauchemars Beauvais . Laurent Fiévet . Laurent Fiévet . 2020-12-07.
  33. Web site: Tomorrow's Photographers Today . Collector Daily . Loring Knoblauch . 2020-12-07.
  34. Web site: Photographer Robin Friend's group show 'Spirit Level' opens this evening . One Six 7 . One Six 7 . 2020-03-16.
  35. Web site: reGeneration2 - Tomorrow's Photographers Today . Musée de l'Elysée . Musée de l'Elysée . 2020-03-16.
  36. Web site: Martin Parr Foundation . Martin Parr Foundation . Martin Parr Foundation . 2020-07-27.

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