LONDON.- Snap Galleries hosted a solo show for Michael Putland in their Birmingham gallery in 2005 which was a great success, and now they are working with Michael again on this new exhibition of triptychs.

In this new exhibition, Michael Putland presents a collection of work from his extensive 1970s and 80‘s photographic archives in a stunning new format, combining sets of three images as triptychs, presenting three individual frames as a single artwork. 

The exhibition is on view from April 13th through May 21st, 2011.

As Michael Putland explains “The inspiration for the project actually came from the Renaissance. Seeing many Renaissance originals in museums and churches over the years, it struck me that there could be a contemporary twist to this age old method of image presentation, and I started to explore images within my archive to see whether any would be suitable for combining as triptychs. The deeper I dug, the more I came up with, and I’m delighted with the results. In each triptych, my guiding principle was that the three images should work together as a coherent whole - there had to be an anchor image in the centre, and then a natural image for the left and one which sat naturally to the right.“

His first triptych featured Mick Jagger, and the resultant artwork fizzes with life: three portraits of Mick Jagger in conversation which have a dynamism and strong sense of animation. The exhibition features triptychs of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, John Lennon, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Tom Waits, Bob Marley, Steven Stills, Tim Buckley, Madonna and Prince among others.



Background on Michael Putland


Passionate about music from a young age, Michael’s career in the music industry began as he thought it was about to end. In the process of closing down his studio (because he simply couldn't afford it) he was literally saved by the bell. The bell on his telephone. The very last call prior to shutting the doors in 1971 was an assignment to photograph Mick Jagger.

Then it really started. 

Michael didn't actually have a day off in the seventies. At least that's how it seemed to him at the time. And looking back, there's just no other way he could have assembled a photographic archive of such immense breadth and depth. Thirty years later he had accumulated a vast archive of pretty much everyone who cut a record or played a gig. His A to Z goes from Abba to Zappa and would wrap around a small village. 

Michael has a very intimate and personal style of portraiture and combined this with a flair for live work.

He is probably best known for his images of The Rolling Stones from their 1973 tour, which have been published in a lavish limited edition book “Pleased to Meet You”, but he has a rich seam of material outside his Stones archive.