Checked this out (with Wei) because the shadows and broodiness which dominate the examples of Henson's photography used in the ads seemed likely to be my bag. Having now been through the eight rooms of the exhibition, covering the whole of his career, my strongest impression is that that interplay of light and dark is fundamental to Henson's work, whether brought to bear on his characteristic long-limbed, sombre-transported adolescents, urban crowd scenes, or cloud-dominated landscapes. It's all very expressionistic, and there are hints of decadence and the gothic scattered throughout, as well as a distinct swell of romanticism (if my Lit degree has been good for nothing else, it's at least taught me to distinguish between some of these terms - and, obviously, to write sentences completely weighed down by them).
I particularly liked the series of paired, chemically manipulated images (apparently gelatin silver photographs, laid down in lead...whatever that means) which were mostly girl/decayed architecture, and the vistas in which the outlines and forms of clouds trace, highlight and shade into semi-silhouetted trees and muted, branded buildings; wasn't so keen on the crowd scenes or the cityscapes. The often eroticised adolescents were a bit of a mixed bag - the ones focusing on the body were compelling, particularly when taken as a whole, but less so once the novelty wore off, and the fragmented cut-ups, in which pairs or groups of Henson's semi-naked subjects are posed or juxtaposed in darkness against both nature-landscapes and man-made structures (I was amused that Wei didn't linger in the room containing those ones), were striking but a bit strident for my tastes.
I particularly liked the series of paired, chemically manipulated images (apparently gelatin silver photographs, laid down in lead...whatever that means) which were mostly girl/decayed architecture, and the vistas in which the outlines and forms of clouds trace, highlight and shade into semi-silhouetted trees and muted, branded buildings; wasn't so keen on the crowd scenes or the cityscapes. The often eroticised adolescents were a bit of a mixed bag - the ones focusing on the body were compelling, particularly when taken as a whole, but less so once the novelty wore off, and the fragmented cut-ups, in which pairs or groups of Henson's semi-naked subjects are posed or juxtaposed in darkness against both nature-landscapes and man-made structures (I was amused that Wei didn't linger in the room containing those ones), were striking but a bit strident for my tastes.
