Edward Woodman

The Artist’s Eye

Edited by Gilane Tawadros and Judy Adam
Foreword by Phyllida Barlow
Texts by Gilane Tawadros and Woodrow Kernohan

Edward Woodman was the photographer of choice for two generations of British artists, from Richard Deacon, Antony Gormley, and Cornelia Parker to Mona Hatoum, Rachel Whiteread, and Damien Hirst. These and other artists recognized Woodman’s acute sensitivity to their intentions and his unparalleled ability to present their radical works and ideas through photography. But his beautiful and distinctive images go beyond mere documentation, for they are traces of creative relationships that became intrinsic to the artworks and the way they have been received by audiences. As acclaimed sculptor Phyllida Barlow writes in her foreword, Woodman’s ‘images of artists’ works are themselves the work of an artist. His art is a visual poetry.’

Published to coincide with a retrospective exhibition at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, this book presents many of Woodman’s best-known photographs, including numerous iconic images of the most celebrated works of recent British art and portraits of their makers, as well as subjects captured for personal interest. Frame after frame reveal his extraordinary capacity to create photographs that enable us as future viewers to experience these sculptures, installations, and performances as if we had been there, in the present, sometimes years and decades after the event.

Gilane Tawadros is a curator and writer, based in London. She is the Chief Executive of DACS, a visual artists’ rights management organization. She was the founding director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London. She has curated numerous exhibitions and has written extensively on contemporary art. Her books include The New Economy of Art (2014), Changing States: Contemporary Art and Ideas in an Era of Globalisation (2004) and Life is More Important Than Art (2007).

Judy Adam is an independent curator and consultant.

Woodrow Kernohan is Director of the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton. He was previously Director/CEO of EVA International, Ireland’s biennial of contemporary art, and Co-Director of the photography festival Brighton Photo Fringe. In 2015, he was also the Curator of the Irish Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.