Coming Soon: No Iconic Images. Views of War

Exhibition launch: 19 March / RSVP

Exhibition continues: 20 March – 4 May

Open Eye Gallery is proud to announce the new exhibition No Iconic Images, in partnership with The Guardian and Magnum Photos. 

• The exhibition shows projects by the new generation of Magnum photographers, Peter van Agtmael and Newsha Tavakolian, who share their perspectives on the wars they witnessed and experienced in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. 

• It also visualises the decisions made by the Guardian’s journalists and editors when working with war photography today, offering their views of conflicts around the globe, from Haiti to Myanmar.
• Forensic Architecture and the Centre for Spatial Technologies present their investigation of the 2022 attack on Kyiv TV Tower, while Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei challenge the Western aesthetic tradition in representations of the dead.

When we talk about war photography, we often think of iconic images – photographs that shape how conflicts are perceived and remembered. Some even influence political decisions and societal shifts. But could a single photograph stand for the whole? Are there iconic images today? Do they need to exist? What images of conflicts do we need? Do we believe in what we see? There are so many questions to ask when talking about the representations of war.

Magnum Photos has established itself as a leading group of photographers who have created iconic images covering the conflicts of the 21st century. However, warfare, media and photography itself have changed significantly in the last decades. In this exhibition, the new generation of Magnum photographers, Peter van Agtmael and Newsha Tavakolian, offer their perspectives on the wars they witnessed and experienced in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Their projects will be shown in Gallery 2.

The Guardian reports on major news worldwide 24/7, with the best photojournalists offering their views of wars and conflicts around the globe, from Haiti to Myanmar. The exhibition in Gallery 1 visualises the decisions made by journalists and editors when working with war photography today. 

Finally, Gallery 3 shows how Forensic Architecture and the Centre for Spatial Technologies scrupulously investigate a war event – the 2022 attack on Kyiv TV Tower – while simultaneously revealing the profound narratives buried under the landscape.

Balancing on the borderline between photography and cinematography, Yarema Malashchuk and Roman Khimei challenge the Western aesthetic tradition and the modes in which representations of the dead operate within the public domain. 

“The exhibition No Iconic Images. Views of War explores contemporary depictions of conflict. As the world burns and images circulate faster than ever, it examines recent wars and how they are portrayed and reflected upon through photography”. – Max Gorbatskyi and Viktoria Bavykina, exhibition curators.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a one-day Symposium on War Photography. The symposium will bring together experts in photography and media from the UK and Europe. Through keynote presentations and panel discussions, the participants will explore the historical perspective and most recent practices of working with photography to talk about conflicts. The symposium will take place on 1 May, at Open Eye Gallery – more information to follow soon.

Guardian Media Group is amongst the world’s leading media organisations. Its core business is Guardian News & Media (GNM), publisher of theguardian.com, one of the largest English-speaking quality news websites in the world.

In the UK, Guardian Media Group publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821. Since launching its US and Australian digital editions in 2011 and 2013, respectively, traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. The Guardian also has an international digital edition and a new European edition that launched in 2023.

Magnum Photos is a cooperative of acclaimed, independent photographers who share an ongoing commitment to documenting world events, people, places, daily life and culture. Founded in 1947, Magnum Photos has been telling stories of the past, defining the present, and shaping the future through photography for over 77 years, united by its values of uncompromising excellence, truth, respect and independence. With more than 6.6 million followers across the internet, and a rolling program of museum shows, exhibitions, and events across the globe, Magnum photographers continue to inspire a growing worldwide audience. Find out more at magnumphotos.com.

Forensic Architecture is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Our mandate is to develop, employ, and disseminate new techniques, methods, and concepts for investigating state and corporate violence. Our team includes architects, software developers, filmmakers, investigative journalists, scientists, and lawyers.

The Center for Spatial Technologies (CST) is a Ukrainian multidisciplinary research organisation. Blending architecture, computer science and the humanities, they investigate cities’ past, present, and future.

Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk. Collaborating at the edge of visual art and cinema since 2016, Kyiv-based artists and filmmakers, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk graduated as cinematographers from the Institute of Screen Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine. Focusing on the role of the extra, their works engage with imperialist mythologies. They were awarded the main award of the PinchukArtCentre Prize (2020) and VISIO Young Talent Acquisition Prize (2021). Their film Explosions Near the Museum won the National Competition at the 15th Wiz-Art LIFF. Their short film Additional Scenes received the National Award of Film Critics “Kinokolo” and the Best Short Award at the POFF Black Nights FF in the section Rebels with the Cause.

Open Eye Gallery is grateful for the support and collaboration from Getty Images, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters.

Raymond and his sons. Darien, Wisconsin, USA, 2007 © Peter van Agtmael / Magnum Photos