Alive At Night Photo Exhibition - Review

Alive At Night Photo Exhibition - Review

27 August, 2009
by: Nuria

You could lambast this photo exhibition at the Old Dairy for being nothing more than an elaborate product placement: Nokia commissions acclaimed photographer David Bailey to shoot some pics on their new model, the Nokia N86 8MP, and the results are displayed alongside shots from ten competition winners. Meanwhile, we're supposed to marvel at the new model's eight megapixel built-in camera and muse at how 'with it' the Finnish company is, putting on this show only a month after having set up an outdoor roller disco to promote their phones' built-in music players.

That said, there's far less interesting ways to generate publicity. The concept behind 'Alive At Night' is, while not super-original, rather cool: a selection of London's night workers and nocturnal dwellers become the focus of photographic portraits, shedding light on some of the city's hidden sides. To further emphasise the night theme, the portraits are displayed in darkened rooms, illuminated solely by backlights. As an additional ode to those who keep antisocial hours or have unconventional jobs, the exhibition runs continuously for over 24 hours, from 10am on the 27th August to 5pm on the 28th. For one night only in quiet Bloomsbury, you can ditch the kebab shop for cultural nourishment instead. 

A viewer reflects upon an image of a slaughterhouse worker.

Admittedly, though, the photography isn't so impressive from an artistic point-of-view. While David Bailey makes the most of the technical limitations (he captures his subjects with clarity and achieves good compositions), the pictures have a flat quality to them. But the 'Polaroid look' is in these days (as evidenced at recent photo exhibitions like Vice), as is using artworks to tell stories rather than letting them stand on their aesthetic merits alone.

The stories here are personal and varied; it's worth reading the quotes and descriptions (visible thanks to tiny reading lights) to find out just why self-styled vampires Daz and Seph find the night-time alluring, or why the bakers getting up at 3am to start their shift in Stoke Newington don't mind being awake at ungodly hours. Other featured creatures of the night include burlesque dancers, market sellers, cabbies, emergency services personnel, butchers and nurses. The darker elements of urban nightlife (such as homelessness or low-level sex work) are conspicuous only by their absence, but truthfully, so much photojournalism relies on depicting miserable existences that it's nice to showcase ordinary realities, some mundane, some quirky, but none of them pitiable or shocking.

Vampire Seph, one of Bailey's subjects, at the exhibition's opening night.

If intrigued by different aspects of London life, head to the Old Dairy before the exhibition dissolves into thin air like Daz and Seph (presumably) do come daybreak. Alternatively, you can request an access code to see the photos online at the official website, aliveatnight.co.uk.

Click here for all photography in London.

Click here for the Spoonfed Team's guide to London's finest photo galleries.

Nuria