March 1 - May 5
Untitled Places by Nigel Parry
on view at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau St, Charleston, SC

Born in a small mining village in South Yorkshire, England, Nigel Parry spent his formative years drawing and painting. He studied a graphics degree in college, where typography and design inspired the compositions of his photography which later became his primary focus. While designing books for publisher Faber & Faber in 1987, Parry was invited to exhibit his photographic portraits of members at the newly formed Groucho Club in London to rave reviews. A week later the London Sunday Times Magazine asked him to photograph for them.

Parry soon left his full-time design position, and undertook portrait assignments in London for Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, ad agencies and film companies. In 1994 he moved to New York City, where his career photographing portraits for the most prestigious clients continued to grow, and now includes the current and former US Presidents, world leaders, Hollywood royalty, entrepreneurs, and other luminaries. Elle, InStyle, Men’s Health and Maxim have included Parry’s work in features. Music and movie companies such as 20^th Century Fox, Buena Vista Picture, Sony Music, and Bad Boy Records have been clients also. The Charlie Mars music video “Meet Me By The Backdoor” is Parry’s directorial work.

His work has been exhibited worldwide at various art galleries, museums and festivals including: The National Portrait Gallery in London, The National Galleries of Scotland, The National Museum of Film & Photography, Le Festival Pour L’image Perpignan, and the NY Premier Photo Festival. Parry was the first portrait photographer to be invited to exhibit his work at the Cannes Film Festival. Parry shows in Vienna, Austria at Preiss Fine Arts.

Although most known for his celebrity portraits, Parry has been capturing the landscape since his early teens. The same approach to understanding the subject, storytelling and emotion is evident in all his work, be it a face, food, or landscape. He has published 2 monographs - ’Sharp’ and ‘Blunt’ ( both published by Powerhouse books).

A few of his awards include the European Magazine Award, Award of Excellence from the U.S. Society of Newspaper Design, American Society of Magazine Editors Portrait Award, Hasselblad Master Photographer, Communication Arts, ASME, Graphis, Photo District News, Art Director’s Club, International Photography and American Photography Awards.

He has been involved in several global children’s charities including the Starlight Foundation and Operation Smile. He has donated his time attending several missions on behalf of Operation Smile photographing children in the far remotes of China, Brazil, and India. His powerful photographs help to create a further awareness of the charity. In 2010, Operation Smile honored him with the Universal Smile Award for his photographic and charitable contributions.

Parry first visited Charleston on assignment in 1995. He immediately fell in love with its warmth and charm, and eventually married one of its daughters. With his wife, Rachel, Parry lives between the Catskills of New York's Hudson Valley, New York City, and Charleston, and he continues his love for photographing the people and places wherever he is.

Parry’s statement about his latest work is “My portraits are highly personalized and honest views of the people I’ve been privileged to have sit in front of my lens. The resulting photographs are the means by which I tell the story of what the individuals are like. I arrange the light, lines, and shapes into a hyper-real, immediate, and unmistakable message of their being.

My landscapes use all the same means of visual storytelling and intentions. The use of film, however, with its imperfections and development process, and the digitization of the negative transform the photographs into something more abstract. The black and white wrinkles on an old man’s face are replaced by ripples on a lake dissolving into a mist of subtle colors. Where the eyes usually sit are horizon lines, and the frame becomes harshly divided into two slabs of color or fades into mist and hidden shapes. The sharp unambiguous portraits of people have become the ambiguous, fluid portraits of landscape.”