Chris Shaw (photographer)

An image from Life as a Night Porter (2006)

Chris Shaw (born 1961) is an English documentary photographer.^[1][2][3]

Career

In his 2006 monograph Life as a Night Porter, Shaw published photographs taken over a ten-year period whilst working as a night porter at certain London hotels, "all the time he kept his camera with him, recording in black and white grainy photographs the many strange events that he witnessed, taking pictures."^[4] In 2004 Alexander McQueen and Nick Knight chose the pictures as the winning entry in an Independent on Sunday fashion photography competition.

Apart from Shaw's published works with independent publishers he has book created book dummies or small editions (1-10) of several photographic series: Sandy Hill Estate (1989), Budapest Guide (1989), Liverpool Colour (1980s), Night Porter (1993–2008), Soho/Shoreditch (1990s), Jungle (Sri Lanka 2009), Chat et Sourris (2009-2012), Weeds of Wallasey (2008–12), The Polars (Polaroid portraits), Perm Russia (2012), Small Mornings (2013) and Joshua Trees (2013).

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, journalist John Preston said, "Shaw remains an evasive, almost blurry character who seems to belong in the shadows and who can't bear being stuck in one place for too long."^[2]

His working practice is mostly negative based, and heavily worked hand printed archival fibre-based black and white or colour prints. He believes in a physical contact between the materials and the photographer that produces them to form a photograph.

Publications

• Life as a Night Porter. Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms, 2006. ISBN 978-1931885508. Edition of 2000 copies.
• Before And After Night Porter. Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2012. ISBN 9783868283211.
• Weeds of Wallasey. Kamakura, Japan: Super Labo, 2013. ISBN 978-4-905052-58-6. Edition of 500 copies.
• Retrospecting Sandy Hill. London: Morel, 2015. ISBN 978-1-907071-58-4. Edition of 500 copies.
• Horizon Icons. London: ADAD, 2015. ISBN 978-0-9576923-3-6. Edition of 500 copies.

Exhibitions

• Life as a Night PorterPhoto; Erick Franck; Weinstein Gallery; Danziger Gallery; Threesa Luissoti at Paris Photo, 2013; Landskrona Sweden Fotofestival, 2015;^[5][6] Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia. Part of the photo festival in Perm, May 2012.
• Before and After Night Porter, Tokyo Photo, September 2011. Exhibited as a guest of Tate museum and curator Simon Baker.
• Life as a Night Porter and Weeds of Wallasey, Moscow House of Photography, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, May–June 2014^[7][8]
• Weeds of Wallasey, Aura Gallery, Beijing; Zen Gallery, Tokyo, October 2012 – June 2014.
• Chris Shaw and Moriyama: Before and After Night, Tate Britain, London, October 2013 – March 2014. Shaw's Life as a Night Porter, Sandy Hill Estate and 'Weeds of Wallasey as well as photographs by Daidō Moriyama.^[9]
• Weeds of Wallasey, Exposure, Format Photography Festival, Derby, England, 2015. Shaw with Alex F. Webb, David Fathi, Francesca Seravalle, Marianne Bjørnmyr, Boris Eldagsen, George Miles, Karl Ohiri, and others.^[10][11][12]

Collections

Shaw's work is held in the following permanent collections:

• Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA^[13]
• Tate, London^[14]
• J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA^[15]
• Archive of Modern Conflict, London
• Wilson centre, Hampstead, London
• FRAC, for NANTES, France

References

1. O'Hagan, Sean (29 November 2015). "Chris Shaw: 'Art college was full of rich kids so I used my camera to speak to normal people'". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
2. John Preston Night Moves The Daily Telegraph, 19 November 2006.
3. Compton, Nick (2013-10-28). "Chris Shaw's 'Night Porter' meets Daido Moriyama's demimonde photography at Tate Britain |". Wallpaper.com. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
4. "Saatchi Gallery". Saatchi Gallery. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
5. "PRESS INFORMATION : WORLD-FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS AT LANDSKRONA FOTOFESTIVAL, AUGUST-15" (PDF). Landskronafoto.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
6. "Festival". Landskrona Foto. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
7. "Chris Shaw photography exhibition returns to Russia | News — The Calvert Journal". Calvertjournal.com. 2014-05-08. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
8. "Photographer Chris Shaw Makes Present Seem Like History | Arts and Ideas". The Moscow Times. 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
9. "BP Spotlight: Chris Shaw and Moriyama: Before and After Night Porter". Tate. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
10. "Chris Shaw". FORMAT Festival. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
11. "Pearson: Exposure". FORMAT Festival. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
12. Diane Smyth. "What to see at Format, Britain’s biggest photography festival | British Journal of Photography". Bjp-online.com. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
13. "Carnegie Museum of Art". Cmoa.org. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
14. "Collection of Iconic Photographs Donated to". Tate. 2012-05-01. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
15. "Life as a night porter / [Chris Shaw]. - Getty Research Institute [Alma]". Primo.getty.edu. Retrieved 2015-12-03.

External links

• Official website
• Chris Shaw on Tumblr
• TateShots: Chris Shaw — Shaw describing his photography and an exhibition (video)
• Chris Shaw: “Life as a Night Porter” (2006) at American Suburb X