Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography review – a rhapsodic show to stop you in your tracks
Tate Modern, LondonFrom a Singapore construction worker to a loincloth-wearing Sri Lankan, this awe-inspiring and truly global exhibition finds epic beauty in the everydayI don’t remember the last time I saw such a well-researched and truly globally representative exhibition that doesn’t patronise but quietly makes its case unapologetically, fearlessly and through sheer quality. Apart from being the first retelling of the international, pluralistic pictorialism movement, Tate’s new show allows for some refreshing encounters with unknown works for British audiences – around half of the works included here have never been shown in the UK. The effect is to radically deepen and widen our understanding not only of art history but the human impulses that drive us to make images in the first place.We move seamlessly from the sudden shock of colour in three-colour carbon prints of flowers in a L
Charlotte JansenPhotographyArt and design