No ‘Wow!’ moment, but an engaging show
Photo: From A Right To An Education series by Rosie Hallam
Daniel Nelson
With travel still iffy, the Royal Geographical Society’s Earth Photo exhibition offers a chance to glimpse aspects of the world without leaving London.
The work by 50 shortlisted photographers is varied (though I’d like to have seen more representation of Africa, Asia and Latin America) and mostly good quality, but fails to surprise. It looks familiar. There’s no “Wow, look at that” moment.
Perhaps it’s because as juror and photojournalist Marissa Roth says in a video commentary for New Scientist magazine, “it’s much more peaceful than in the previous two years, as if photographers were wanting to see more beauty in the images rather than just talk about really hard-edged stories.”
Because of travel restrictions photographers were allowed to mine their existing images (which also explains the aura of familiarity), and perhaps as a result of that, she surmises, the works show greater appreciation of the wonder and beauty of life, and how you don’t need to journey to the other side of the planet but can just go out of your front door and see wonders.
Part of the problem is also that the exhibition is over-ambitious: it invited photos in five categories - People, Place, Nature, Changing Forests and A Climate of Change. That’s four too many. Any one of those subjects would give better focus.
Nevertheless, it’s an engaging and interesting show, whether it’s pictures of wastepaper eco-costumes in The Philippines, an Ethiopian shepherd with a radio slung round his neck, dramatic sand encroachment in Namibia or Brazil’s season-shifting Lencois Maranhenses National Park. Much to look at and ponder.
* Earth Photo exhibition is at the Royal Geographical Society, weekdays 10am-5pm, 1 Kensington Gore, SW7, until 25 August. Info: 7591 3000/ enquiries@rgs.org
* Earth Photo 2021: see for yourself: https://www.earthphoto.world/2021exhibition
+ The Royal Geographical Society says: “ Rosie Hallam has won the 2021 Earth Photo competition with her stunning triptych A Right to an Education depicting one family’s story: daughter Selamaw, the first person in her family to stay on at school past primary age, her mother Meselech, and finally her father Marco, who are all subsistence farmers participating in an education programme in Ethiopia. Rosie’s series of images also won the competition’s People category.
“Rosie Hallam and the five other category winners were selected from over 2,000 submissions by an expert panel of judges, chaired by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Marissa Roth. She said of Rosie Hallam’s winning work: “This series exemplifies hope and possibility, and it is eminently clear that [Rosie] has a heart-felt interest in telling Selamaw’s story as evidenced in the outstanding portrait of her studying in her home and through the sensitive portraits of her parents. Rosie is an accomplished and dedicated photographer and is trying to interpret the world with an eye towards positive change, while raising awareness of the importance of literacy.”
Rosie Hallam said of her work: “Education is both a basic human right and a smart investment. It is critical for development and helps lay the foundations for social wellbeing, economic growth and security, gender equality, and peace."