Alastair Whitton: Viewing Room

The photographic works of Alastair Whitton are preoccupied with the mechanisms of memory and the recording of time and place. Through the lens he explores what he refers to as ‘the architecture of time and the poetics and politics of place’ attempting to illuminate the ‘space between moments’. His photographs celebrate the seemingly commonplace and are in effect monuments to the dislocated or overlooked.

To date he has presented solo shows in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Paris. Upcoming solo projects include Photo London and MIA Photo in Milan. His work has been featured in curated exhibitions at notable museums and institutions in South Africa and abroad. Highlights have included: Fotomuseum, Antwerp; Pratt Institute, New York; Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; The Center for Book Arts, New York; Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome; Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice; National Museum of Mali, Bamako and IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town.

He has participated in various international art fairs and festivals including amongst others the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2013-2020); AKAA - Also Known as Africa, Paris (2017-2019); Host: Editions, Cape Town (2015); FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (2009-2014); Head On Photo Festival, Sydney (2013); Editions: Artists’ Books, New York (2009 & 2013) and Out of Africa Festival, Munich (1997).

Whitton’s work is represented in the collections of the Durban Art Museum, University of South Africa, Durban Institute of Technology, Jack Ginsberg Collection / Ampersand Foundation, National Museum of Mali, Luciano Benetton Collection and the Aperture Foundation in New York.