Anthony Reed is an English born photographer and filmmaker who works and lives in Shanghai.
His practice broadly explores the subjective interpretation of the built environment and the rapid processes of change in China. In his artworks we sense the city's dense urban fabric. Tightly packed apartment blocks, recently demolished lots, abandoned interiors, isolated individuals, towering neon clad skyscrapers. All combine to reveal the cities’ multifaceted nature. People are transforming the world but also simultaneously being transformed by it. Reed enjoys to present the transformation of ‘the physical matter’ through time, and also the never-changing intangible loneliness and solitude that is attached to the people in the great metropolises.
For him, cities are where lonely people stay crowded together. He captures this contrast in his pictures and explores abstract emotions with figurative imagery.
Walking like the ‘Long March’ is his usual methodology, as it takes him to the clearest state of mind. Searching without a destination with a camera is his own therapeutic way of photographic practice. The world is a thriving, promising, and sometimes depressing place. Photography is his optical meditation and reaction mechanism to deal with the world in the vortex of turbulence. With millions of people living in one place, the extensive walking, exploration and documenting is a way of recording these multiple facades of the world in drastic transition, no matter if it is progressing or regressing, as they carve marks in history, the imagery represents slices of moments of the collective memories.
EXHIBITIONS
2021 - Group Show, Portraying The City • Interpretation, Xie Zilong Museum, Changsha, China
2015 - Solo Show, Concrete Reflections, Ooh La Art Gallery, Shanghai, China
2015 - Group Show, Moving Studios, How Art Museum, Wenzhou, China
2014 - Solo Show, Les Villes Invisibles, Fes, Morroco
2014 - Group Show, The Temporary, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, UK
2014 - Group Show, The Temporary, Article Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2013 - Solo Show, In Between, ONE Gallery, Shanghai, China
2005 - Group Show, Unicorn Vision Gallery, Area 798, Beijing, China
安东尼·里德艺术家自述
安东尼·里德是来自英国的艺术家及摄影师，目前工作并居住在上海。他主要采用中画幅胶片机和数码相机进行创作。里德于2007年毕业于诺威奇艺术大学纯艺专业，随后他来到中国并在中国海洋大学学习汉语并开始了他的摄影创作生涯。
他的作品主要探索的是已有的人工建设环境和过去在中国的12年时间里目睹的转变过程。他主要的拍摄地点位于上海，也包括中国的其他部分。从最开始的一名局外人和观察者，到后来的居住者，他目睹了在这片土地之上发生的剧烈变化，并以他个人的视觉语言记录了下来，描写的是多样性的地点与其中的居住者们之间的动态关系。
在他的作品中，我们能够看到标志性的摩天大楼、隐秘的角落、拥挤的步行街、未被使用的办公楼、破败的商场、光鲜亮丽的金融区、游客必去的景点、被遗弃的房子、孤独的个体等等，共同揭示着大都市的多个面相。人类在改造着世界，但同时也被它改造。里德善于呈现在历史变化中“物”方面的转变，以及在大都会里附着在人身上永恒不变的无形的孤独与寂寞。对他来说，城市是孤独的人拥挤在一起的地方。里德在他的胶片中记录下这种反差，用具象的图像探索抽象的情感。
用长征式的方式行走是他常用的创作方法，因为这能给他带来最清晰的头脑。漫无目的地用相机去搜寻下一个拍摄主体是他自己的“疗愈方法”。世界是勃发的、充满希望的，但有时亦是压抑的。摄影因此成了他在世间漩涡与湍流中，用光线去冥想的工具和应对世界的机制。几百万人居住在同一个地方，为他提供了可以肆意行走、探索、拍摄这些剧烈转变中的世界的多个面相，无论这些变化是前进的还是后退的，它们都在历史上留下了印记，而图像成为了再现这些集体记忆瞬间的最佳载体。
展览经历
2015 Concrete Reflection, 个展，Ooh La 画廊，上海
2015 Moving Studio, 群展，昊美术馆，温州
2014 Les Villes Invisibles, 个展，非斯，摩洛哥
2014 The Temporary, 群展，华人当代艺术中心，曼彻斯特
2014 The Temporary, 群展，Article Gallery, 伯明翰
2013 In Between, 个展，ONE Gallery, 上海
2012 上海双年展城市馆，上海当代艺术博物馆，上海
2005 独角兽画廊群展，798艺术区，北京
Instagram: @anthonyreedphoto
email: anthony@reedphotographic.com