Tim HALL

1988 : BA (Hons) Art History, Manchester University
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
2013 : Royal Academy of Art, Summer Exhibition (group exhibition)
2011 : Royal Academy of Art, Summer Show (group exhibition)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Austria : Lech (Aurelio Hotel)
France : Paris (Galerie Arcturus)
Germany : Berlin (City’ Raab Gallery)
Hong-Kong : Lan Kwai Fong Gallery, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, AJC Fine Arts
India : Calcutta, New Delhi (Tasveer Galleries)
Switzerland : Andermatt (The Chedi), Gstaad (Le Grand Bellevue), Verbier (Chalet 14), Zurich (Photobastei)
United Kingdom : Aldelurgh (The Garage Gallery), Brighton (Crane Kalman Gallery), Londres (Nehru Centre London, The Gallery Notting Hill, The Tabernacle Gallery, England & Co, Blenheim Crescent Gallery, Kings Road Gallery, Cork Street Gallery, Collyer Bristow Gallery)
United States : New-York (Staley Wise) 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Germany: Berlin (Raab Gallery)
France : Paris (Galerie Arcturus) ; Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse (Musée de la Grande Chartreuse)
Hong Kong : Amelia Johnson Contemporary
United Kingdom : London (Durlacher Fine Art, Flaere Gallery, Collyer Bristow Gallery, Arndean Gallery, Cork Street Gallery, Mai Gallery ; Brighton (Crane Kalman Gallery) 

ART FAIRS
Spain : Madrid Foto 3 Art Fair
United Kingdom : Art London, Affordable Art Fair, Londres
United States : AIPAD, New York ; Affordable Art Fair, New York

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Autria : Aurelio Hotel, Lech
Burma : Strand Hotel, Yangon
Hong-Kong : Jockey Club, Hong Kong ; Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong ; Li and Fung, Hong Kong
Italy : Collector Alberto Grimaldi
Montenegro : Regent Hotel, Tivat
United Kingdom : Barclays Bank, London ; Prudential Corporation, London ; ECI, London ; Ecofin, InvestmentGroup, London
Vietnam : Nikko Hotel, Hô-Chi-Minh

BIBLIOGRAPHY
2016 : T. Hall, S. Benge, « La montagne au-delà des nuages », teNeues, Kempen
2013 : T. Hall, « Above the clouds », Lecturis, Eindhoven
2011 : T. Hall, « Scape, desert coast mountain », exhibition catalog, Tasveer, New Delhi
1999 : T. Hall, « Golden faces, The people of Myanmar, an exhibition of photographs by Tim Hall », Naga Productions, Hong Kong
1996 : T. Hall, Y. Gellie, J-L. Manaud, « The silk road today, A Hong Kong story », Li & Fung, Hong Kong
1995 : S. Mansfield, T. Hall, « Laos, A Portrait », Ellsworth Books, Hong Kong; Ed Quatre fleuve, Paris
1994 : J. Bekaert, T. Hall, F. Bartlett, « Vietnam, A Portrait », Elsworth Books, Hong Kong ; Image et Page, Paris ; J. Vertley, T. Hall, « Myanmar, The Golden Land », Ho Group, Bangkok
1993 : J. Hoskin, T. Hall, « Cambodia, A Portrait », Elsworth Books, Hong Kong
Presse – Articles : House and Gardens, Huffington Post, World of Interiors, Image, Prudential, Faves, Telegraph Magazine

AUCTIONS
2011 : Phillips de Pury – Dressing by the Ganges – BRIC Auction, Saatchi Gallery
2010 : Phillips de Pury – Varanasi Rooftops – BRIC Auction, Saatchi Gallery
2009 : PhotoVoice – Mountain Hut – London
2008 : Photovoice –  Beach I
2007 : Photovoice  – Bathing in the Ganges

Tim Hall’s photographs convey the scale and majesty of landscape and the sense of freedom and awe it evokes. Inspired by the work of photographers and artists such as Salgado, Sugimoto and Rothko, his eye is instinctively drawn to the symmetry, pattern and colour of his surroundings, as he strives to capture the drama and spirit of place. Tim’s deep love of nature and the environment has led him to travel extensively with his camera, from the British seaside where he compiled two series, Coast and Storm, to the streets of Jodhpur and the banks of the Ganges in India, and most recently to the diverse communities of Morocco and Montenegro.

Above the Clouds documents his journey into the mountains above the villages of Lech and Zürs in Austria; his mountainscapes explore the fragile relationship between the natural world and those that venture within it.

Tim has a longstanding affinity with the mountains of Europe, having skied with his family from a young age. “Perhaps my motivation was based on nostalgia,” he says. “I wanted to capture the sense of excitement and surrealness of seeing a place for the first time.” The Arlberg was unfamiliar to him when he arrived in 2008 but he was immediately struck by the grace and serenity of the scenery. His images capture the wonder he felt travelling up the Kriegerhorn chairlift for the first time, the clouds lifting to reveal a snow-covered panorama. “As a photographer one always hopes for that magic moment when an image literally falls into the lens — it kept happening in Lech,” he explains. “The joy of the Arlberg is that the scenery is gentle as well as being vast and monumental. I feel a huge sense of excitement whenever I am here.” The symmetrical aesthetic of the mountains — the rock formations and chair lifts, and lines of skiers following their guides — add structure and symmetry to Tim’s work. “I enjoy the sense of scale; tiny skiers against enormous nature,” he says. But it is the muted qualities of the mountains: hazy light, low clouds and the soft tones of the rocks, sky and slopes, that make his mountainscapes so distinctive. “I want to create a sense of the drama that you feel up in the mountains but also the calm”. His compositions are thus simple; suggestive rather than specific. He uses a square format camera to allow as much space into the composition as possible, conveying the silence of high altitude and that sense of solitude and trepidation that is felt on a ski tour or climb.“I am a great believer that less visual information creates a more powerful impact,” he says.

Tim’s choice of subject matter, the timing of his shots, and his film stock, work together to give his pictures an elusive, Turneresque feel — the line between photograph and painting is blurred. As Hubert Schwärzler, former head of tourism for Lech, commented: “Tim simply paints with his camera.”

Just as nature works in patterns and repetitions, Tim’s mountainscapes form a coherent series, working both individually and as groups. They move through the seasons, from the wind-packed snowfields of winter to the dappled summer meadows, via the visual metamorphosis that takes place in spring and autumn. They show how quickly conditions can change on a mountain; the play of light and shadow that constantly reshapes the view. “The true beauty of the landscape wasn’t revealed to me until I returned in the summer and walked for days on end through spectacular scenery that had been blanketed by snow only weeks before,” Tim says.

Many of the scenes included in the collection are immediately recognizable to those who are familiar with the Arlberg but others are more abstract. Grand Tour shows two skiers disappearing along an isolated track above the Monzabonsee, with the clouds descending.

“The figures are so exposed to nature, battling against the conditions, yet in charge of their own destiny,” he says.

The mountainscapes in Above the Clouds will, Tim hopes, lead the viewer beyond the particular scene to a memory of an experience of their own: “I like the idea that in their more abstract nature my pictures might take you to a more spiritual place.”

Anna TYZACK