Biography
Polly Tootal is a British landscape photographer, but the landscapes she records are not likely to be found in any popular chronicle. They are crossed every day and are so anonymous that they are anchored in our consciousness and then forgotten. Perhaps that's why, despite their apparent anonymity, they all seem so familiar. Polly spoke of an ongoing fascination with the landscape, and admittedly there is something obsessive about the scale of her project, the way she wants to map modern Britain, creating an extraordinary record of this country where she has always lived. She uses medium and large format cameras. Each frame is the final act of a slow, thoughtful performance. On the surface, the photos appear unadorned. No smoothing of asperities. There's a piss stain on the side of a building. Even the litter remains. Beginning before dawn, Polly Tootal scours Britain in search of her subjects, looking at "everything we see, might see, have passed, or rather missed, not noticed". Instinct still has a lot to do with the initial selection. It is an intuition, an awareness of the potential energy of space. When she finds a subject, she sets herself up and waits for the right moment. She only produces 5 or 6 images a year.
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Awards
2020 PH Museum Top Projects
2019 Premier Prix Maison Blanche Award, Photo Marseille, Winner
2019 Voies Off Awards, Arles, France –Finalist
2019 Kuala Lumpur International Photography Awards, Finalist
2019 Lens Culture Street Photography Awards, Finalist and Jurors Pick
2015 Prix Du Public Ville D’Hyeres Photographie, Public Award
2010 Association of Photographers Assistants Award, Landscape Series Winner
Exhibitions
2021 LONDON, The Polycentric city, UK
2020 Mass Collective, Urban Identities, Virtual Exhibition
2019 Photo Marseille, Maison Blanche
2019 Rencontres De La Photographie de Marrakech, Morocco
2018 One Contemporary, Venice, Italy
2017 Kestle Barton & Arts Council England, Cornwall, UK
2017 Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam, Netherlands with Galerie Intervalle
2016 Fotofever, Paris with galerie Intervalle
2016 Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam, Netherlands
2016 South Kiosk, London
2016 Galerie Intervalle, Paris -Solo show
2015 Unseen Photo Fair Amsterdam, Netherlands
2015 Hyeres Photography Festival, Villa Noailles, France
2014 One Contemporary, Architectural Biennale, Venice Italy
2014 Bulgarian Embassy, London –group exhibition
2011Higher Pitch, London –group exhibition
2011 Southbank Centre & Hayward Touring Exhibition, Dorset –group exhibition