This winter the Noorderlicht Photogallery plunges into the world of dark sagas and Korean legends. From 17 December, 2011, through 5 February, 2012, the gallery is showing a unique double exhibition in which digital image manipulation is employed for telling stories. This exhibition at Noorderlicht will be the Dutch premiere for this extraordinary work by the photographers Colette Campbell-Jones (USA) and Won Seoung Won (South-Korea). 

Digital manipulation of images, once a novelty in photography, has come of age as a practice that is beginning to share common ground with documentary photography. Reality and virtuality are coming together in a new manner of sharing stories. Both of these women use sagas and legends as the point of departure for their digitally constructed stories.

But the results they achieve differ greatly. The pitch black coal mine photos by Colette Campbell-Jones are charged with the dread of being swallowed up by the earth. Won Seoung Won's exuberant colour photographs express a deep love for the Korean landscape.

© Colette Campbell-Jones, Won Seoung Won

Noorderlicht Photogallery
Akerkhof 12 Groningen NL
Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 6pm
Admission: FREE
CLOSED on December 25 and 26 and on January 1. The gallery is open untill 5 pm on December 31.

From 17 through 31 December the Noorderlicht Photogallery is holding a special book sale, with steep markdowns on Noorderlicht titles.

While we were doing the inventory in our storeroom we discovered fifteen copies of the catalogue for Metropolis, which we had thought was sold out. These last copies are therefore for sale, but only in the gallery, so if you want one you had best get there fast – because this time sold out will really mean sold out!

During the book sale the gallery will also have have special offers on limited editions and signed copies.

The latest book by the American photographer Ken Schles, published by Noorderlicht, appeared in October, 2011. As was the case for previous books by Schles, the reviews have been most positive.

Harper Levine, Harper's Books (Jury Selection Committee Member for Le Prix du Livre Paris Photo 2011)
"...quite simply it's one of the best new photobooks I have seen in years: a towering accomplishment filled with aesthetic beauty and emotional depth. I can assure you this book will be a classic. ...it gave me chills from beginning to end."

Daylight Magazine
"Ken Schles' Oculus might send chills down your spine, if you let it. " 

GUP Magazine
"Schles invokes Nabokov's idea that memories are the brief separation between the soul's abyss before life, and after death. If these images are a collection of Schles's memories, he's shared them with us, not because we can ever touch his memories, or see them fully, or even understand them; but because we are human, and we can project our own meanings, our own memories."

Oculus

Price: EUR 39,50.
Hardcover, fullcolor
Size 22x31cm | 96 pages
ISBN/EAN 978-90-76703-45-9

Special limited editions with slipcase and print can be ordered from Ken Schles' website.

© Ken Schles

Noorderlicht has a presence in Groningen outside the Photogallery too. The whole year round Noorderlicht also shows the work of talented young photographers from the North of the Netherlands in the Groningen cinema club ForumImages.

Since November the series “First Love” by the young Groningen photographer Maarten de Kok has been on exhibition at the cinema.

First Love

It is becoming increasingly popular for students to spend the free weeks between their final exams and the time they get the results vacationing and partying in a warm spot. This year Sunny Beach in Bulgaria has become very popular among Dutch young people. In addition to its extremely low prices and good accommodations, this resort has lots of cafés and discotheques. It's got all the ingredients for a great party! 

© Maarten de Kok

ForumImages
Hereplein 73, Groningen NL