DIORAMA PROJECTIONS

Kurt Tong

Photographing the Familiar

Diorama Projects is pleased to present an informal presentation and conversation with award winning visual artist Kurt Tong. From Peter Fraser’s unheimlich ‘Everyday Icons’, ‘Aus den Fugen’ (‘Out of Joint’), Seiichi Furuya’s photographic memorial to his wife Christine Gossler, and Julian Germain’s graciously poignant ‘For Every Minute You Are Angry You Lose Sixty Seconds of Happiness’ artists have had different motives and inspirations for taking the familiar and the mundane as their subject.  In ‘Photographing the Familiar’ Tong will be present to discuss the evolution of his trilogy of highly personal photographic works ‘In Case It Rains in Heaven’, ‘People’s Park’ and ‘Memories, Dreams Interrupted’, markedly departing from his expansive projects such as ‘Farewell in Labrador’ and ‘22 Steps to the Sea’.

Born in Hong Kong in 1977, Tong originally trained as a health visitor at the University of Liverpool.  He has worked and traveled extensively across Europe, the Americas and Asia.  In 1999, Kurt co-founded Prema Vasam, a charitable home for disabled and disadvantaged children in Chennai, South India.  Tong became a full-time photographer in 2003 and gained a Master’s degree in documentary photography from the London College of Communication.  He was the winner of the Luis Valtuena International Humanitarian Photography Award and the City of Port St. Elpidio Prize with his first picture story documenting the treatment of disabled children in India. He worked for many other NGOs and covered stories from Female Infanticide to ballroom dancers. 

Winner of the Photograph.Book.Now competition, the Hey, Hot Shot! competition and the prestigious Jerwood Photography Award, Tong’s photographs have been widely published and exhibited around the world at venues including: The Royal Academy, Impressions Gallery, Abbaye de Neumunster, Fotofest in Houston and solo shows at  Compton Verney, Photofusion and Streetlevel Photoworks.

Kurt Tong, from The Queen, The Chairman and I, 2011

Location

Thursday 16 June 2011

7.00pm

marc + chantal design