What does life mean in the face of the knowledge that you will die? Photo after photo photography master Silverthorne takes us by the hand, leading us past the beauty and the grand guignol of a life in the shadow of mortality.

With Travel Plans Noorderlicht presents a retrospective exhibition of an oeuvre that has hung out on the fringes of American society.

From the 1970's Silverthorne could be found in brothels, in the company of transvestites and transsexuals, in the world of dwarf wrestlers and body builders. In morgues he recorded the recently deceased: a sensual woman who died in her sleep, seriously frowning babies, a little boy who had been hit by a car. These are photographs from which you want to avert your eyes, but you cannot. The longer you look, the more questions they provoke, and with that: compassion.

Silverthorne succeeds in making himself increasingly vulnerable and visible through his work. ‘I make images to remember,’ he once said, ‘not so much of that which I am recording, but of my own feelings and reactions.’

Travel Plans was produced in association with Galerie VU', representing Jeffrey Silverthorne

Noorderlicht Photogallery
Akerkhof 12, Groningen NL
Open Wed thru Sun 12:00-18:00h
Free admission

Travel Plans is published by Aurora Borealis, the publishing arm of Noorderlicht, in cooperation with co-publisher Les Éditions de l'Oeil and Galerie VU', representing Jeffrey Silverthorne.

Price: EUR 29,50
Softcover, fullcolor and duotone
Format 24x29cm | 96 pages
English
ISBN/EAN 978-90-76703-00-8

16 July - 28 August

Celebrated fashion photographers from around the world offer a unique view of the international haute couture of the 20th century with a special focus on the Middle East. Photographers in this exhibition include the extraordinary and groundbreaking Lilian Bassman, Frank Horvat, William Klein and Melvin Sokolsky.

photo: William Klein

11 September - 9 October

In 2007 the world celebrated the beginning of the urban millennium: for the first time in history more people lived in cities than in the countryside. This development has far-reaching implications. Is a decent, humane life possible in a modern megapolis that is bursting at its seams?

photo: Inamiya Yasuto ©

A photographic book about images, memory, and the metaphor of light.

Oculus takes you on a personal philosophic journey that points beyond the shadow-play of images. It is a meditation on the nature of perception and existence in the gray light of this world.

Expected September 2011

Deadline 15 July

A one year master class for professional photojournalists and documentary photographers: the next step in your photographic career.

First season 2010-2011 © Tatu Lertola