Harry Cory Wright – Hey, Charlie at the Eleven Gallery

Coming from a contemporary perspective, it’s very easy to dismiss photography these days: everyone has access to a camera. Every man, woman and child can, and frequently does, bombard a mostly indifferent world with Instagram snapshots, or Tumblr, Flickr, or any of the image-sharing websites that have inexplicably mass-exiled the letter “e”. So, why bother going to a gallery to see a small selection of photographs when, if you are so inclined, you can trawl through thousands of them from the comfort of your own home? What’s the difference? A photo is a photo, right?

Clearly not. Perhaps when you think of landscape photography you get a general panorama idea: a wide-angle image of sprawling, natural majesty, with a significant sense of scale. Wright’s photographs are incredibly vivid: they are small, enclosed and oddly personal. For lack of a better term, they have depth – there’s an immersive feeling to them.  There’s an almost unreal quality to some, yet they were all taken in the same place. Perhaps the reason that Wright’s photographs are immersive is that they are not the sprawling panoramas that can inspire awe. They do not represent the scale or agelessness of their scenes, just a specific brief moment among other brief moments.

But if you are looking for a good number of these brief personal scenes you’ll probably find yourself unsatisfied. There are a grand total of six photographs: they are large, they fill the walls and their scale helps with the feeling of immersion. Yet there’s something disappointing about there only being six pieces to an exhibition, no matter the quality. Unless you are one of those people who are able to sincerely stare at a single piece of art for great lengths of time, this is only going to be something worth seeing during a lunch break, or if you’re just passing through the area. There’s not enough to go out of your way for, if you’re not truly interested.

Verdict: ★★★★★

Francis Davies

Harry Cory Wright: Hey, Charlie is at the Eleven Gallery until 7^th September 2013, for further information visit here.