Artist Talks - Dave Heath

Dave Heath Talk – The Photographers’ Gallery

As a part of my professional development planning blog, I was required to attend multiple talks in regard to my studies, at galleries, in order to gain further insight into the photography industry and what it’s like to be working within it. I decided to attend a talk at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, online, discussing and showcasing the work of Dave Heath, which also tied in with the workshop they were having at the gallery called ‘The Intimate Gaze: capturing emotion and gesture in portraits’ run by Alejandra Carles-Tolra. Dave Heath was a documentary and street photographer from America, who is most known for his project called ’A Dialogue with Solitude’ which was shown and discussed in the talk put on by The Photographers’ Gallery. Dave Heath’s work focuses on the creation of narrative through street, portraiture, and documentary photography. By focusing on these themes, his work links to the theme of narrative as he used the emotions captured on his sitters’ faces to tell a story.


‘A Dialogue with Solitude’ is a project based around narrative through street, portraiture, and documentary photography, focusing in on the emotions depicted on his chosen sitters’ faces as they go about their everyday lives, often times unaware of the camera or photographer. This project showcases a series of work that is created to document emotions, gesture, and gaze within everyday life situations. Within this project, the artist, creates these photographs to document the everyday life of the people around them and their facial expressions, leaving it to the viewer’s interpretation as to the story behind those expressions. By leaving the story up to the interpretation of his target audience, the artist creates a series of stark contrasting images filled with close-up compositions and intense facial expressions and emotions.


His focus on these themes and the subject within his photographic project leads to a lot of contrasting imagery being made as it leaves the audience to figure out what the scenario and environment around the sitters, captured within his photographs, might be like. I feel that the use of the close-up compositions enables the artist to create a focal point and leading lines of focus within his imagery, whilst also intensifying the emotions, gestures, and gaze visible within the photograph.


Whilst researching the work of Dave Heath and attending the online talk at The Photographers’ Gallery I realised a few similarities between his work and my own. A lot of my own photographic work is inspired through the themes of narrative and storytelling, emotions, and atmosphere whilst also using colour and shape to further emphasize these themes of focus, evident in both my music and concert photography as well as my editorial and more personal photography. Attending the talk at The Photographers’ Gallery has given me a lot of insight into the way that I portray my themes within my own photography and how it can be developed further with my knowledge gained from the analysis of Dave Heath’s work and the talk at the gallery.

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