My Influences - Cig Harvey

Cig Harvey

Back in July I wrote a review for a book (her third monograph) called "You an Orchestra You a Bomb" by Cig Harvey and said a little about her. This time she has a whole blog to herself. 

I first came across Cig's work online when I discovered some of her early work around the time of her second monograph "Gardening at Night" although by then she had already shown work a number of times in both solo and group shows starting in 2000. I was impressed with her monotone work although most of her pictures are in colour and in fact colour is immensely important to her. Her work often shows edges, hints, and segments;  small pieces which allowed you to wonder and it was this storytelling element of her work that I found attractive. She herself has said that she is influenced by magic realism and has attracted comments comparing her work to that of Rene Magritte.

Looking further I found a long interview with her which was a talk recorded at The School for Visual Arts in New York. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUG-JYvcMwk ). At over an hour it will tell you as much as you need to know up until 2014 when it was recorded. It is never boring and shows many of her early pictures as she discusses motivation rather than technique.

Cig is English and was born in Devon in 1973 but later travelled abroad, working in different countries before settling in the USA where she still lives in Rockport in Maine.

Her first monograph "You Look at me Like an Emergency" was published in 2012 and all her books are now collectors pieces, partly because they are produced in limited numbers by a specialist company in Rockport where she lives. 

She has received many awards and recognition for her work in the intervening years. In 2018 she was named the 2018 Prix Virginia Laureate, an international photography prize awarded to one woman each year. Her recent work has been largely centred on family and firends with some echoes of Sally Mann. Where she will go next is less certain I feel but she is certainly a photographer to watch for me. 

Here is her website to browse https://www.cigharvey.com/