Jeff Hall’s photography opens up a world of incidental detail and riddle, bound together by an undercurrent of deep disquiet.
His latest exhibition, Jeff Wall: Life in Pictures at White Cube Bermondsey only has two weeks left, and it is not one to be missed.
The showcase marks 30 years of collaboration between Mr Wall and the Bermondsey Street gallery with 40 works of film, photography and contemporary art.
From the earlier lightbox transparencies to his more recent black-and-white photographs and colour prints, Jeff Wall: Life in Pictures follows a timeline from the early 1980s to the present.
Mr Wall’s photographs draw the viewer in with their rich detail and narrative potential, with many taking on the form of a ‘near documentary’ style.
This was one of the main directions of his work over the past four decades and many of these images are present throughout the exhibition, from Mimic, made in 1982, to Fallen rider, from 2022.
Having worked exclusively in colour transparencies until the mid-1990s, Mr Wall then began producing black-and-white silver gelatin prints.
He had never wanted to be limited to a single format and considers black-and-white photography as a way of making colour both appear and disappear.
This effect is apparent in A woman with a necklace (2021), where the glow of sunlight through a curtained window creates an almost preternatural radiance to the beads of the necklace held by a reclining woman.
But, the image asks the viewer to contemplate its subject. Why is the woman holding the necklace ? Why is it in black and white ? What is it supposed to mean ?
Mr Wall’s art always invites you to look deeper than the surface. To search for clues, notice detail, and wonder whether what you see is fiction or reality.
Jeff Wall: Life in Pictures will run at White Cube in Bermondsey until January 12.
Pictured top: The Thinker (1986) (Picture: Jeff Wall /Courtesy White Cube)