This past March photographer Sarah Pickering and independent writer, lecturer and curator Susan Bright spoke at Aperture about Pickering’s first book Explosions, Fires and Public Order. The book gathers together four photographic series by the artist: Public Order which explores the Metropolitan Police Public Order Training Centre, a simulated urban environment where officers rehearse responses to scenarios of civic unrest; Explosion which document the use of controlled explosions by the British military in training exercises; Fire Scene and Incident which were produced while Pickering was an artist in residence at the UK Fire Training College.

In the edited excerpt below Pickering talks about the two series Public Order and Explosion. On Public Order Pickering states that the “sense of latent violence” in empty sets was a more “evocative” and powerful image to her than trying to capture action shots of the police training. Pickering also touches on autobiographical aspects in her work and identifies demonstrations against the war in Iraq as an inspiration for the images in Explosion.

View a second short excerpt focusing on Pickering’s Fire Scene and Incident series:

Excerpt 2

View the talk in full here:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Click here to purchase Sarah Pickering’s Explosions, Fires and Public Order

Untitled by Michael Corridore

The summer issue of 1000 Words Magazine is now available online and it features several in-depth profiles of recent Aperture projects. Natalie Belayche reviews 2008 Aperture Portfolio Prize winner Michael Corridore’s exhibition  Angry Black Snake which was on view at the Aperture gallery and bookstore this past Spring. Liz Kuball writes of Sarah Pickering’s Explosions, Fires and Public Order and a book review for Gerry Badger’s just released The Pleasures of Good Photographs is also featured.

Click here to view the Summer issue of 1000 Words Magazine.

Click here for information on Gerry Badger and John Gossage talk at Aperture Tuesday, June 8th.

Click here to purchase Sarah Pickering’s Explosions, Fires and Public Order.

Photograph by Sarah Pickering

On the occasion of the release of Sarah Pickering’s monograph Explosions, Fires and Public Order, Pickering will talk this evening with writer, lecturer, curator and author of Art Photography Now, Susan Bright. The conversation will take place at Aperture Bookstore and Gallery and will be followed by a reception and book signing.

Pickering has said of her work that it “Explores the idea of imagined threat and response, and looks at fear and planning for the unexpected, merging fact and fiction, fantasy and reality.” In the conversation Bright and Pickering will discuss these themes and the images included in Explosions, Fires and Public Order depicting the mysterious worlds of The Metropolitan Police Public Order Training Center (a simulated urban environment near London where officers rehearse response to imagined scenarios), controlled explosions used by the British Military during drills, as well as constructed home interiors set ablaze for training purposes at UK Fire Training College.

Susan Bright and Sarah Pickering In Conversation
Wednesday, March 31, 6:30 PM

FREE

Aperture Gallery & Bookstore
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
New York, New York
(212) 505 – 5555

Click here to view Explosions, Fires and Public Order

Click here to view limited edition print of Pickering’s photo Artillery