Last chance to see: June 2019

Missing out on an exhibition is frustrating. In a major city like London or New York, where new shows open every week, it is difficult to keep track. Life rushes past, and days, weeks, or months later we notice that major retrospective has ended, or an intriguing group exhibition has moved on, or that a collection of rare prints has been packed up and sent home.

This new monthly feature is a way for us to remind our readers of all of the noteworthy exhibitions closing this month.


Tyler Mitchell, I Can Make You Feel Good

Last year, Tyler Mitchell wrote history when he became the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue. Alongside a selection of images from the 23-year-old photographer’s personal and commissioned work, Foam is also premiering two of Mitchell’s video works: Idyllic Space and Chasing Pink, Found Red.

FOAM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Until 05 June

Boys of Walthamstow, 2018 © Tyler Mitchell

Rachel Cobb, Mistral: The Legendary Wind of Provence

Rachel Cobb has been hunting the Mistral, a strong, bitterly cold wind in the south of France, for 20 years. Determined to photograph the invisible, Cobb’s photographs are evidence that the Mistral is an integral part of life in Provence. “It touches almost every aspect of life, between the architecture, food and salt production, art, and literature,” she told BJP-online in November 2018.

KMR Arts, Washington, United States
Until 08 June

Tourists are buffeted by the mistral on the Pont St-Bénézet, often called the Pont d’Avignon. A Provençal expression goes: Windy Avignon, liable to the plague when it has not the wind, and plagued by the wind when it has it. 26 June 2009, Avignon, France. © Rachel Cobb

Joanna Piotrowska, All Our False Devices

The Polish photographer’s first solo show in the UK considers gestures, relationships and power through still photographs and a series of 16mm films. Included in the exhibition is Self Defense, a series where Piotrowska asked young women to reenact poses from a self-defence manual, as well as her most recent work Shelters, where the image-maker invited people to build makeshift homes in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Warsaw and London.

Tate Britain, London, UK
Until 09 June

Untitled 2015. Originally commissioned through the Jerwood and Photoworks Awards 2015 © Joanna Piotrowska

Alys Tomlinson, Ex Voto

Alys Tomlinson’s award-winning series is a product of a five-year journey across Catholic pilgrimage sites in Ireland, Poland and France. “Placed anonymously and often hidden from view, ‘Ex-Votos’ are offerings left by pilgrims as signs of gratitude and devotion,” she explained to BJP-online in 2018, after being shortlisted for the British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award. The exhibition, curated by Amber collective’s Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen and Liz Hingley, encompasses formal portraiture, large format landscape and small, detailed still-lifes of the objects and markers left behind.

Side Gallery, Newcastle, UK
Until 09 June

© Alys Tomlinson, from the book Ex-Voto

Women war photographers: from Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus

There is a widely held notion that war photojournalism is dominated by men, but there is in fact a long history of women photographers who reported in war zones. An exhibition at Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf presents over 140 works by eight women photographers, including Susan Meiselas, Carolyn Cole, Françoise Demulder, Catherine Leroy, Lee Miller, Anja Niedringhaus, Christine Spengler, and Gerda Taro.

Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany
Until 10 June

Edward Burtynsky, Anthropocene

Edward Burtynsky’s latest work is inspired by a new geologic era proposed in 2000 by chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Jozef Crutzen: Anthropocene. It was introduced to represent a formal recognition and acknowledgement of the “human signature” on the planet. The Anthropocene Project – also published as a book by Steidl – includes photographs of the biggest terrestrial machines ever built in Germany, concrete seawalls in China that now cover 60 percent of the mainland coast, and psychedelic potash mines in Russia’s Ural Mountains.

Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy
The exhibition has been extended and will now run until 22 September

© Edward Burtynsky

Eamonn Doyle

A major exhibition of work by the Irish photographer, DJ and record label founder occupies two floors of Michael Hoppen gallery in London.  The exhibition, part of which was shown at Photo London last month, and in Dublin earlier this year, coincides with the launch of Made in Dublin, a book designed by Doyle’s long-term collaborator Niall Sweeney, which includes an introduction by award-winning Irish author Kevin Barry. Along with Doyle’s large scale prints, the exhibition will present nine LCD screens – more than 6m in length – in an immersive video installation accompanied by an audio track of Barry’s voice and texts, overlaid on new music by David Donohoe.

Michael Hoppen, London, UK
Until 15 June

Eamonn Doyle Made In Dublin 05 © Eamonn Doyle

Issei Suda: A Personal Retrospective

In memory of Issei Suda, one of Japan’s most respected photographers and educators, Zen Foto Gallery in Tokyo presents a major retrospective of his work. Suda passed away on 07 March 2019, aged 79. The exhibition includes a selection of work from acclaimed series such as The Mechanical Retina on my Fingertips, Waga Tokyo 100, and The Journey to Osorezan, as well as rare and unseen images from the personal collection of the gallery’s founder, Mark Pearson.

Zen Foto Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Until 15 June

Photography courtesy of Zen Foto Gallery © Yoshiko Suda

Mary Ellen Mark, Photographs

From the mean streets of America’s underclass, to movie set royalty, Mary Ellen Mark captured a sense of quiet dignity in her subjects, belying her innate sense of humanism and curiosity. The exhibition presents work from series like Indian Circus and Twins, as well as the late photographer’s commissions for LIFE magazine on homelessness in California, and series about youth and poverty in Seattle.

Fahey/Klein, Los Angeles, United States
Until 22 June

Clayton Moore, the Former Lone Ranger, Los Angeles, California, USA, 1992 © Mary Ellen Mark, courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery


Marigold Warner

Deputy Editor

Marigold Warner worked as an editor at BJP between 2018 and 2023. She studied English Literature and History of Art at the University of Leeds, followed by an MA in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London. Her work has been published by titles including the Telegraph Magazine, Huck, Elephant, Gal-dem, The Face, Disegno, and the Architects Journal.