Simon Baker is regarded by many as one of the leading curators of contemporary photography in Europe. A curator, writer and educator, Baker is currently director of the Maison Européenne de la photographie (MEP), a position he has held since April 2018.
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Simon Baker of Tate Modern London is the institute’s first curator of photography and international art and is held in high esteem for his role in formulating the museum’s evolving photographic strategy. EMAHO sat down with Simon at the 2013 Les Recontres d’Arles Photographie Festival to discuss his thoughts on this year’s talent and the approach he takes as a curator in acquiring photography for the Tate collection.
Manik : You’ve mentioned in one of your previous interviews that the aim for you as a curator is to present something that has never been seen before, to reveal and to uncover some aspects of work that we, the audience, may not always know about. Were there any unique aspects of the work at Les Recontres d’Arles that you found interesting?
Simon : When I was looking at works for Arles, I was looking at the idea of discovery, which is the meaning behind the [Discovery] award. This could be in many different ways, it could be the discovery of a new young artist, somebody who has maybe just finished art school and their work has not been seen or, in another case, somebody who in fact was well advanced in their career but hadn’t had the exposure or the opportunities that others might have had. I think both were very important. Yet another case involved works that weren’t shown in France very much, so something that could have been seen in a lot in America but not so much here.
Manik : Along with this, you have also been really attracted towards photography in Japan. Before you became a curator, you had studied the works of Minoru. You have also been deeply influenced by Moriyama. What do you think of what’s happening in contemporary Japanese photography?
Simon : The history of Japanese photography is quite distinct from what we usually think of it, particularly post-war photography, because so much work was in black & white. The dominant tradition in post-war work has been colour so what was interesting to me about Japan (particularly people like Takahashi, Moriyama, Nakahira) is that they made this new visual language in black & white, which is quite relevant for this year in Arle because of the theme being black & white. I think Japan is something that we underestimated for many reasons, some of them cultural, some of them to do with language, but I think it’s important to fully understand the significance of Japanese photography.
