Join us for an exclusive online event for Photoworks Friends to celebrate the launch of Annual 31; Multi Multi after receiving your copy in the post.
This free event will delve into the latest edition of the Photoworks Annual, Multi Multi, with its editor, Diane Smyth, and featured artist Marcel Top. Together, they’ll explore the key themes of Annual 31 and discuss Marcel’s work in-depth, offering a deeper understanding of the work, new perspectives and a chance to engage in thoughtful discussion.
Talk highlights:
- Introduction by Diane Smyth: An overview of Annual 31, including the central themes and editorial vision behind this year’s publication.
- In conversation: Diane Smyth and Marcel Top will discuss the work featured in Multi Multi, exploring his creative process and the ideas that shaped his contributions.
- Interactive Discussion: ask questions and share your thoughts on the artworks, essays, and themes in Annual 31.
How to Join: This talk is free and exclusive to Photoworks Friends via Eventbrite. To access tickets, use the password provided in the most recent Photoworks Friends newsletter or contact friends@photoworks.org.uk.
This talk will be hosted on Zoom, with a link to enter sent at least 24 hours before the event.
About Annual 31, Multi Multi
Photoworks’ 31st Annual Publication is a deep dive into image replication.
William Henry Fox Talbot pioneered photomechanical reproduction in the 1840s, and Walter Benjamin published his iconic essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, in 1935. Since then, the implications of photography’s reproducibility have been largely ignored – and even deliberately suppressed in limited edition prints. That is, until now. The invention of digital imaging, the internet, and social media have brought the ability to reproduce and circulate images, and with them new questions around what it all means.
Multi Multi (Photoworks Annual # 31) edited by Diane Smyth, gathers contemporary artists working with replication, via 23 projects from around the world. Including series made with both cutting-edge technology and works created with the oldest analogue processes, it suggests image replication is nothing new and is intrinsically linked to the capitalist culture in which it was born.
Multi Multi features work by artist Marcel Top, Sara Hodges, 2021
Sara Hodges doesn’t exist; she is an AI-generated vision of a patriotic American citizen. To generate images of Sara, Top gathered 50,000 Instagram posts tagged with the phrase #iloveamerica, then sorted them into categories. Using these images as datasets, he then trained an AI and asked it to generate new photorealistic renditions. The results create a fake online persona, populated with images of Sara plus her pet, husband, gun, and picturesque snaps of sunsets. Sara’s existence testifies to an American type but also to the mass surveillance to which we are now exposed. Top has therefore used his images of Sara with a 3D-rendering programme, to create a real-world silicon mask of her face.
About Diane Smyth
Diane Smyth is the Editor of the Photoworks Annual. She is also Editor of the British Journal of Photography, and has published writing on photography in titles such as The Guardian, The Observer, Apollo, Aperture and FOAM, and in catalogues and monographs. Diane teaches History and Theory of Photography at University of the Arts London. @dismy
About Marcel Top
Belgian artist Marcel Top studied photography at Narafi in Brussels, then completed an MA in photojournalim and documentary photography at London College of Communication. He has shown his work at .tiff at FOMU in Antwerp, and Fotofestiwal, Łódź, and in 2024 won the Prix Médiatine. Top lives between Belgium and London. marceltop.com
Photoworks Friends is for anyone who wants to learn and be a part of the contemporary photography community. We are a globally recognised charity proud to offer an engaging, provocative, and insightful year-round programme. For £35 a year (£45 international) Friends receive the latest issue of our annual publication on contemporary photography, 20% off in our online shop, invitations and discounts to special events, plus early access to our online publication, Photography+.
Become a Photoworks Friend now with the code MULTI31 to receive Multi Multi delivered to your door with a 20% discount.
