‘David Levene: Eyewitness’
Guardian photographer to exhibit in The Gallery at Foyles
2 September – 26 October
Guardian photographer David Levene is to exhibit a selection of his favourite Eyewitness photographs at the new flagship Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road. The free exhibition, curated by Mark Davy of Futurecity, will run from Wednesday 2 September until Sunday 26 October 2014.
Levene, one of the Guardian’s award-winning photographers, has been taking photographs for the Guardian’s pioneering Eyewitness series since it began in 2005. In total he has had over 120 photographs featured in the daily slot, and has now chosen ten of his favourites for this exhibition. Each photograph has been blown up to over 1.5m across, allowing viewers to experience these powerful and monumental images on a scale at which they have never been seen before.
Guardian Eyewitness was revolutionary when it was introduced in full colour across the centre spread of the Guardian newspaper in 2005. Now the only daily print photo feature of this size in the British press, the hugely popular Eyewitness seriescontinues showcase some of the world’s best news photography. In recent years Eyewitness has proved just as popular on digital platforms, launching as one of the first ever iPad apps in 2010. Since launch the free app has clocked up over a million users around the world (http://www.theguardian.com/mobile/eyewitness).
David Levene says:
‘An Eyewitness photograph should always provoke the feeling of being involved or part of the scene, and that is something that I always consider when I am composing or thinking about the subject that I am shooting. The exhibition selection began with a conversation with Mark Davy at Futurecity. We discussed how big the images would be, how they appear on the page and how this would be mirrored on the wall. There are lots of things that are important and that I love about Eyewitness but the overarching rule is to have lots of detail, and lots to look at, and to be able to exhibit some of my images on an even larger scale is a great opportunity.’
Mark Davy, director of Futurecity, comments:
‘David Levene’s images set out unequivocally the heroic struggle of life in the city – multiple viewpoints and an epic scale force the viewer to contemplate the retina-searing visual chaos of urban life.’
Alongside the exhibition, Foyles will be hosting a discussion on Wednesday 24 September exploring the journey of an Eyewitness image from its conception to appearing in the Guardian and beyond. Free tickets for the event, Guardian Eyewitness: from lens to page, which will feature David Levene alongside key members of the Guardian’s picture desk and imaging team, can be booked on the Foyles website http://www.foyles.co.uk/event-guardian-eyewitness.
This will be the second exhibition in The Gallery at Foyles, located on the fifth floor of the new Foyles bookshop at 107 Charing Cross Road, and curated by Futurecity to celebrate ‘the word’ in all its forms. The Art book department is located by the main entrance on the ground floor.
Mohara Gill, Head of Art at Foyles adds:
‘Photojournalism can often be a more effective and immediate medium for communicating a point of view or observation than the written word. These photographs still retain the crispness and minute detail they exhibited on the page, making it possible to pick out individuals in the crowd and to appreciate the immensity of man’s mark on the landscape.’
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For further Foyles press information, please contact
Christina Neou-North or Chris Baker at Four Colman Getty
020 3697 4264 / [email protected]
020 3697 4252 / [email protected]
For further Guardian Eyewitness information contact:
Guardian News & Media Press Office, 020 3353 3696 / [email protected].
Notes to Editors:
The exhibition will be open each day at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DT, from Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 9pm and Sunday11.30am – 6.00pm. Entrance is free. http://www.foyles.co.uk/exhibition-david-levene
The exhibition will include an interview with David Levene by Dr Jean Wainwright, Head of Cultural Studies, School of Film and Media.
About David Levene
David Levene has worked as a photographer for the Guardian since 2001, after graduating from a Graphic Design Degree course at Camberwell College of Art. His images, videos and multimedia have appeared in the Guardian and on theguardian.com across news and features. Alongside this, David’s work regularly appears in architectural and design magazines. He has also worked with charities such as Everychild, Oxfam and Medicins-Sans-Frontières, documenting their projects around the world.
David is a two-time award winner at the Press Photographer’s Year Awards. He won first prize in 2010 in the live news photograph of the year category for his work documenting the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. David also won first prize in 2013 in the arts category for his photograph of U2’s Bono on stage at Glastonbury in 2011.
About Foyles
Foyles is National Bookseller of the Year 2013 and 2012, as well as Children’s Bookseller of the Year 2012. It has bookshops on Charing Cross Road, at the Southbank Centre, Westfield London, Westfield Stratford City and London Waterloo Station, as well as a branch at Quakers Friars, Cabot Circus, Bristol. Founded in 1903 by two brothers – William and Gilbert Foyle – and trading on Charing Cross Road for over 100 years, Foyles celebrates its 111th anniversary in 2014.
The new flagship Foyles bookshop at 107 Charing Cross Road, designed by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands as a ‘bookshop for the 21st century’, houses a range of over 200,000 different titles on four miles (6.5km) of shelves. With 37,000 square feet of flexible retail space spread across eight alternating levels and a full height central atrium, the retail layout allows for easy navigation and the serendipitous discovery of new books. A cultural hub on the on levels 5 and 6 consists of a Gallery, curated by FutureCity, a Café, run by Leafi, and Auditorium, for talks and discussions.
The Foyles website has millions of books and over 400,000 eBooks for sale, with live stock availability from all its bookshops and details of upcoming literary events and book signings. Foyles also sells nook ereaders and tablets. www.foyles.co.uk
About Futurecity
Founded by Mark Davy in 2007, Futurecity is interested in developing collaborative relationships between artists and other disciplines, whether science, architecture or technology. Futurecity work with curators, galleries and clients from around the world, championing artists who are changing the way art is presented in an urban context. They curate major arts projects, devise cultural strategies, broker cultural partnerships and deliver art projects from inception to completion.
They are responsible for a large number of international multi-disciplinary art projects, including Mark Wallinger’s 50 metre ‘White Horse’ part of a placemaking strategy for Ebbsfleet Valley UK; the recently unveiled 78 metre Richard Wilson sculpture ‘Slipstream’ for Heathrow’s new Terminal 2: Queens Terminal and the ‘Culture Line’ public art strategy for the Crossrail project in London, which will deliver art installations for 8 central stations awarded to 8 artists from 8 international galleries based in London including PACE, White Cube, Lisson, Maureen Paley, Victoria Miro, Gagosian and Sadie Coles HQ. www.futurecity.co.uk