Lewis Bush (photographer)

Lewis K. Bush (born 1988) is a British photographer, writer, curator and educator.[1][2] He aims "to draw attention to forms of invisible power that operate in the world", believing that "power is always problematic" because it is inherently "arbitrary and untransparent".[3]

This article is about the British photographer. For other people, see Louis Bush (disambiguation).

Bush's The Memory of History (2012), is about Europe's forgetfulness of its unresolved past and that past's re-emergence, as evidenced in the time of the European debt crisis;[4] The Camera Obscured (2012) is about the absurdity of security guards preventing people from photographing buildings; Metropole (2015) is "an architectural critique on the changing face of London";[5] War Primer 3 (2013) is a reworking of Broomberg and Chanarin's book War Primer 2; and Shadows of the State (2018) is about numbers stations.[6] All are self-published apart from Shadows of the State and the 2018 version of Metropole. The Memory of History[2][4] and Metropole[5] have been shown in solo exhibitions in London.

Life and work

Bush was born in 1988 in London.[1] He studied history at the University of Warwick and gained a master's degree in documentary photography from London College of Communication (LCC).[7] He lectures on photojournalism and documentary photography at LCC.[8]

In 2012, for The Memory of History (2012),[9] Bush travelled through ten European Union countries to examine the effects of the European debt crisis, in the context of Europe's turbulent history of crises that are forgotten, only later to resurface. Bush intends to show that process happening again, where unresolved history is reappearing "with the economic pain of the present", using photographs that show "connections between history and the present".[4]

For The Camera Obscured (2012) he set up a camera obscura outside sensitive sites around London and used it to draw them until challenged by security guards. Bush "attempted to engage these personnel in a discussion about art history, highlighting the blurred boundaries between images made by mechanical means and those drawn by hand, and by doing so demonstrating the absurdity of their objections." The work is also about "the intersections of art and photography, and the question of where the balance lies between individual rights and collective security."[10]

His War Primer 3 (2013 and 2015) is a reworking of Broomberg and Chanarin's War Primer 2 (2011),[11] itself an appropriation of Bertolt Brecht's pacifist book War Primer (1955). Brecht's book was a "critique of the relationship between war and photography", using photographs and poems; Bush's ebook, in critiquing Broomberg and Chanarin's book, is about "inequality, labour and capital."[12] The title recalls a primer, a first textbook for teaching of reading.

His Metropole (2015) zine[13] and corresponding book (2018) is "an architectural critique on the changing face of London",[5] "intended to highlight how large swathes of the city are being developed so quickly that they have become unrecognisable – a move he believes is aggressively wiping out London's history and diversity."[7]

His Shadows of the State (2018) is a book about numbers stations,[14][15][16][17][18] that "seeks to visualise, locate and expose many of these stations".[19] It is about the "line of reasoning [. . . ] that the only way to defend democracy is by having something inherently undemocratic at its core."[19] Rather than taking photographs, Bush collated write-ups, publicly available satellite imagery, spectrograms and maps.[19]

His book Depravity's Rainbow (2023) is about early rocket development in Nazi Germany including the V-2 ballistic missile and the way that many engineers involved in these projects were recruited by Allied countries after the war and went on to play a major role in post-war rocket development including at NASA during the Apollo project. The book predominantly focuses on Wernher von Braun.

As well as books, Bush has published around twenty zines containing smaller projects. For example, during the UK's first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Bush forensically exposed and photographed fingerprints present on goods he bought in shops and online. The work is about the potential for contamination of consumers with SARS-CoV-2. It is also about exposing the presence of the usually hidden labourers, vulnerable because of working in distribution at a time of social distancing.[20][21]

From 2011 to 2016 he wrote and edited a blog about photography, Disphotic. He also written about photography for other publications including The British Journal of Photography, The Art Newspaper, Frieze, and publications by Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and Fotomuseum Antwerp.[22]

Publications

Publications by Bush
  • The Memory of History. Self-published, 2012. With essays by Bush.[n 1]
    • Boxed edition. Self-published, 2012. 56 prints and an essay, "The History of Memory", in 12 separate short chapters. Edition of 27 copies.[n 2]
    • Updated second edition. Self-published, 2014. Restructured and with updated text, and with a new introduction by Bush.
  • The Camera Obscured. Self-published, 2012. With texts by Bush.[n 3]
  • War Primer 3.[n 4]
    • Ebook. Self-published, 2013.
    • Facsimile edition. Self-published, 2018.
  • Shadows of the State. Berlin: Brave, 2018. ISBN 978-3-947312-02-3.[n 5]
  • Metropole. Overlapse, 2018. ISBN 9780994791979.
  • Depravity's Rainbow. Disphotic Editions, 2023. ISBN 978-1-7392695-0-0.

Smaller publications by Bush
  • Metropole. Self-published, 2015.[n 6] A zine.
    • Second printing. Self-published, 2015.
  • A Model Continent. Self-published, 2016. A postcard book.[n 7][23]
  • Stryker. Self-published, 2019. A zine.
  • Peckham Gothic. Self-published, 2019. A zine.
  • Eleven Privatised Public Assets. Self-published, 2019. A zine.
  • Latent Labour. Self-published, 2020. A zine.
  • Spyhole. Self-published, 2020. A zine.
  • Welcome to the Hotel Santa Maria. Self-published, 2020. A zine.
  • Sunlight. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • Regression Towards the Mean. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • City of Dust. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • Borderlands. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • Best Copy Available. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • Antique Land. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • A Model Continent. Self-published, 2021. A zine.
  • A Grey Area. Self-published, 2021. A zine.

Publication with contribution by Bush
  • Flash Forward 2017: Emerging Photographers from Canada, the United Kingdom & the United States. Toronto: Magenta Foundation, 2017. ISBN 978-1-926856-11-7. With a foreword by Dan Gaba.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Exhibitions curated by Bush
  • Media & Myth, Format Festival, Derby, UK, 2015.[28]
  • Magna Errata, The Alternative Magna Carta Festival, Clerkenwell, London, 2015.[29]
  • Very Now, London College of Communication, London, 2016.[30]
  • Images of Power, Seen Fifteen Gallery, Peckham, London, 2016. Curated by Bush and Mark Duffy.[31]
  • Incomplete Images, Light Eye Mind, London, 2017. Curated by Bush and Monica Alcazar-Duarte. Work by Tomás Peña, Elena Kollatou and Leonidas Toumpanos, Aram Karim, Damon Amb, and Rahman Hassani.[32]
  • It's Gonna be Great, Copeland Gallery, Peckham, London, 2017. Curated by Bush and Duffy.[33]

Awards
  • 2017: 1 of 92 winners, Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Award, Toronto, Canada[34]
  • 2018: International Photographer in Residence, Archisle Project, Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive, Jersey[35][36][37]
  • 2019: Photographer in Residence, Gobelins / BMW residency.

Notes
  1. The author's page about The Memory of History can be seen here
  2. The essay "The History of Memory" is available here as a PDF in the author's site
  3. The author's page about The Camera Obscured can be seen here
  4. The author's page about War Primer 3 can be seen here and can be downloaded as a PDF here
  5. The author's page about Shadows of the State can be seen here
  6. The author's page about Metropole can be seen here
  7. The author's page about A Model Continent can be seen here

References
  1. "Lewis Bush". Lewis Bush. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  2. "In pictures: Memory of History". BBC News. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  3. "Biography". Lewis Bush. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  4. Alan Knox, "Lewis Bush: The Memory of History". Hotshoe. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  5. Bush, Lewis (9 December 2015). "How London's new buildings show how the city is facing terminal decline". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  6. "Numbers stations: The 'spy radio' that anyone can hear". BBC News. 10 February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  7. "In pictures: A new vision of London". BBC News. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  8. "Lewis Bush". London College of Communication. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  9. Lauren Hansen, "Europe's troubled past comes to light: How a photographer's journey through the European debt crisis stands the test of another difficult time". The Week. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  10. "The Camera Obscured (2012)". Lewis Bush. Accessed 1 March 2018.
  11. Helen Trompeteler, "Graduate Photography Online 2013". Source (photography magazine). Accessed 27 February 2018.
  12. "War Primer 3 (2013-15)". Lewis Bush. Accessed 1 March 2018.
  13. "Requiem For London: Lewis Bush's Metropole". The Photographers' Gallery, 11 November 2015. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  14. Bayley, Bruno (26 December 2017). "Bruno Bayley's Best of 2017". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  15. Murray, Eoin (13 November 2017). "Lewis Bush's Shadows of the State visualises secret radio signals". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  16. "Lewis Bush : Shadows of the State". Le Bal (arts centre). 17 January 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  17. Mallonee, Laura (11 September 2017). "Here's Where Cold War 'Numbers Stations' Broadcast Spies' Secret Codes". Wired. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  18. Chisholm, Kate (17 February 2018). "Radio's role in winning the Cold War". The Spectator. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  19. Bayley, Bruno (26 September 2017). "The Mysterious Radio Stations Broadcasting Secret Messages". Vice. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  20. "I Fingerprinted Everything I Bought to See If It Had Been Contaminated". www.vice.com. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  21. "Latent Labour: a photo series on shopping during the pandemic". www.newstatesman.com. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  22. "Biography". Lewis Bush. Accessed 16 April 2023.
  23. Seymour, Tom (11 April 2016). "Inside The European Union Theme Park". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  24. Amy Frearson, "Abstract photography by Lewis Bush chronicles the "aggressive redevelopment" of London". Dezeen, 15 March 2015. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  25. "Lewis Bush / Lewis Bush: Metropole". PhotoMonitor, May 2016. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  26. Coomes, Phil (13 July 2016). "A City of dust". BBC News. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  27. Express, Bailiwick. "Finance is..." Bailiwick Express. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  28. Smyth, Diane (10 March 2015). "What to see at Format, Britain's biggest photography festival". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  29. "The Alternative Magna Carta Festival 13th June". Free Word Centre. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  30. "LCC Festival of Journalism and Art: Very Now". London College of Communication. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  31. "Images of Power: 2-11 September 2016". Seen Fifteen. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  32. Smyth, Diane (25 November 2016). "Light Eye Mind Gallery Takes a Look at Forced Migration". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
  33. "It's Gonna Be Great.". Peckham 24. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  34. "Flash Forward 2017". Magenta Foundation. Accessed 27 February 2018.
  35. "2018 International Photographer in Residence named". Bailiwick Express, 10 February 2018. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  36. "Focusing on the finance industry: Lewis Bush has been announced as this year’s Archisle Jersey International Photographer in Residence.". Jersey Evening Post, 26 February 2018. Accessed 28 February 2018.
  37. "2018 International Photographer in Residence Announced". Archisle Project. Accessed 28 February 2018.
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