Of Lions and Lambs : Benita Suchodrev

The tourist season is over, the promenade is empty and Brexit is at the door when Benita Suchodrev returns to the British coastal town of Blackpool to photograph the hidden reality behind the famous Amusement Mile.

A complex pictorial psychological investigation into a disenchanted reality and the nature of being, reminiscent of the cinema of Federico Fellini and the black and white English films of 1960s’ social realism.

(Mark Gisbourne, Art historian, Critic, Curator)

The tourist season is over, the promenade is empty and Brexit is at the door when Benita Suchodrev returns to the British coastal town of Blackpool to photograph the hidden reality behind the famous Amusement Mile.

She leads us to local churches, soup kitchens, youth shelters, old age homes and impoverished neighborhoods, meets bizarre characters, underage mothers, drug addicts, artists, and hermits. She photographs strangers on train platforms, homeless in torn rags feasting on ham sandwiches and coffee under a dark overpass, closed storefronts and deserted alleys on a rainy night.

Poetic, rough and authentic, Of Lions and Lambs is a sequel to Suchodrev’s successful debut 48 Hours Blackpool (Kehrer Verlag 2018), the sequel to a story that begins where illusions end.

»By contrast with my first book, 48 Hours Blackpool, this book is not about Blackpool as a ‘playground for the British working class’ but more about Blackpool as a dying ground for those whose class does not matter. For the most part, it’s about those who live in a contemporary Western society and seem to carry on their shoulders every conceivable physical, mental and emotional burden, including the burden of guilt for their own demise. Like lambs they are sacrificed, continuously ‘slaughtered’ (…) Their children are the tenderest of lambs that are served on dinner plates following inaugu- ration speeches. And the rest of us are either lambs who believe they are lions or lions that life turns into lambs.« [ Excerpt from the text Of Lions and Lambs by Benita Suchodrev]

© Benita Suchodrev

Intoxicating and authentic, Suchodrev’s narratives could be a daydream like film told through stills, as in Arthur Schnitzler’s Dream Story or the work of Jim Jarmusch.

(Matthias Harder, Curator, Helmut Newton Foundation)

© Benita Suchodrev

About Benita Suchodrev

Benita Suchodrev was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States in 1990 where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts with a focus on Art History, followed by a Master’s degree in English Literature, graduating with high honours. In 2008 Benita relocated to Berlin and began an extensive documentation of the cosmopolitan city’s multifaceted art scene while working on diverse photographic projects, which have been exhibited in solo and group shows nationally and internationally. Her portrait and documentary work is part of the Rafael Tous Foundation for Contemporary Art in Barcelona, the Michael Horbach Foundation in Cologne and private collections in Moscow, Berlin and New York. Benita currently lives and works in Berlin. [Official Website]

© Benita Suchodrev

Of Lions and Lambs

Benita Suchodrev

Texts by Mark Gisbourne, Matthias Harder, Benita Suchodrev Designed by Benita Suchodrev and Kehrer Design
Hardcover
24x31cm

368 pages
206 duotone illustrations English, German
ISBN 978-3-86828-949-7

www.kehrerverlag.com

© Benita Suchodrev

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Dodho Magazine accepts submissions from emerging and professional photographers from around the world.
Their projects can be published among the best photographers and be viewed by the best professionals in the industry and thousands of photography enthusiasts. Dodho magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted project. Due to the large number of presentations received daily and the need to treat them with the greatest respect and the time necessary for a correct interpretation our average response time is around 5/10 business days in the case of being accepted. This is the information you need to start preparing your project for its presentation.
To send it, you must compress the folder in .ZIP format and use our Wetransfer channel specially dedicated to the reception of works. Links or projects in PDF format will not be accepted. All presentations are carefully reviewed based on their content and final quality of the project or portfolio. If your work is selected for publication in the online version, it will be communicated to you via email and subsequently it will be published.
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