{"id":92092,"date":"2025-08-29T14:20:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/?p=92092"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:20:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:20:46","slug":"stu-allsopp-modern-art-oxford-in-photographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/stu-allsopp-modern-art-oxford-in-photographs\/","title":{"rendered":"Stu Allsopp: Modern Art Oxford in Photographs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stu Allsopp<\/strong> has been a key part of Modern Art Oxford’s creative community for years. You’ll have spotted him photographing events and performances – and here he highlights just a few favourite images. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stu Allsopp has always aimed to “melt into the background” as a photographer, disappearing behind the lens as he documents what happens on stage. The very act of being on stage, in the space of performers as they rehearse “horrifies” him, as he seeks to be “as invisible as possible”. But over time, Stu has been reassured by some of the world-leading dancers, musicians and artists he has photographed, that performers “want to be seen”. In this blog, he highlights just a few of these favourite performances, and the images he captured of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016, KALEIDOSCOPE Live: Dog Kennel Hill Project, \u00c9tudes in Tension and Crisis<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This performance began with each performer naked, before they dressed over the course of the performance. It took place in the basement, and it was very intimate. Stu’s first thought was “should I be photographing this”? To Stu, it was an introduction to how radical Modern Art Oxford was – “quite cutting edge and not stuffy at all”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stu remembers the table and piano that appeared on the stage and the way the performers leapt onto the furniture and ran across it – “it was an incredibly physical performance”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The basement was full of people, with three rows of chairs for the audience as Dog investigated the group dynamics of power, aggression, negotiation and resolution – creating moments and scenes of tension and crisis. “That certainly came across very clearly, the dynamic between the performers”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016, Maria Plotnikova, Stick Apart<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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As Stu reflects on these years as the “invisible” photographer, he laughs as he celebrates having moved in the last 18 months to a silent camera – long gone are the days of the “mechanical shutter with a little click”, though he is grateful that this ‘click’ got ever quieter as new cameras were developped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This performance, in partnership with Oxford Brookes University, brought the entire audience to a focused silence – each of the performers was being “extremely disciplined and walking in exact coordination”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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