We’re proud to share the news that OD artist, Monty Kaplan, has had an image selected from his The Measure series selected as a Single Image Winner for the British Journal of Photography International Photography Award (BJP IPA). Initiated in 2005, this annual prize recognises outstanding projects in contemporary photography.
This year, 20 images by 17 artists have been selected for an exhibition at Peckham’s Seen Fifteen gallery in November 2022. The photographers originate from every corner of the globe, collectively weaving a tapestry of themes pertinent to contemporary life. The gallery’s founder Vivenne Gamble says: “Creating a powerful story through one image is a challenging task. One of the reasons that I love photography is that it educates me, so I am always looking for images that have something new and important to say.”
The winners were chosen by a panel of industry heavyweights including writer and curator David Campany, Fotografiska New York’s Amanda Hajjar, Pier 24 Photography’s Allie Haeusslein, Foam’s Claartje van Dijk, and Seen Fifteen’s Vivienne Gamble, TJ Boulting’s Hannah Watson, and BJP’s editorial director Izabela Radwanska Zhang. David Campany noted “the closeness of attention” paid by this year’s winners: “In the end photography is about paying attention, which is easier said than done,” he says.*
Exhibition at Seen Fifteen, London, November 2022
More information coming soon
The Measure, Monty Kaplan
The Measure is a project that adapts Robert Creeley’s poem of the same name into a science fiction tale of a scientist who becomes consumed by his pursuit to understand the nature of time and the possibility of time travel.
I cannot
move backward
or forward.
I am caught
in the time
as measure.
What we think
of we think of—
of no other reason
we think than
just to think—
each for himself.
Through a cinematographic approach, the series examines the theme of obsession and the pain of frustration both mental and a physical. I wanted to explore the clash of a pragmatic mind with an impossible limit, and the idea of becoming imprisoned by one’s own ways of reasoning. The images reflect the emotional weight that the character experiences as he’s perception of reality warps in his searches for questions without answers.
The project’s narrative is divided into the character’s POV, his scientific journal and experiments. Each working as a layer that adds onto another, which become increasingly erratic as the narration moves into a dramatic crescendo. The end result is a juxtaposition of the character’s inner turmoil with the metaphysical elements that his experiments produce, a visceral trip into madness.
ARTIST BIO
Federico “Monty” Kaplan (b. 1986) is a photographer from Argentina, who is interested in photography as a tool of inspection.
He examines and questions the perception we have of reality. Exploring intersubjective spaces that are shaped from the relationship between our subjective experiences and the objective nature of things. Kaplan searches for what is invisible to the eye and exists only as presentiment.
His background in filmmaking allows him to create unorthodox narratives filled with atmosphere that blur the line between fiction and documentary.
Monty has exhibited widely with shows in USA, London, Germany and Argentina. His project The Measure was selected to be a part of the FOLIO masterclass with PHMuseum and Witty Books. His work has appeared on numerous publications, including It’s Nice That and i-D, among others.
CONTACT
tom@opendoors.gallery
Please get in touch if you have any questions or wish to learn more about available work from Monty Kaplan.
*Text excerpt of Award announcement © Rachel Segal Hamilton (BJP)