The Pillar

Around Stephen Gill’s house in Sweden stretches a vast panorama of sky and open countryside, one of those wide Scandinavian landscapes where it seems nothing ever happens. A bird-lover since childhood, Gill began to suspect that perhaps this lack of activity was deceptive and, determined to “get the birds out of the sky”, he installed a wooden pillar in front of his kitchen window. Over the next four years, the pillar would be visited by hundreds of birds, which Gill photographed with the same framing and against the same landscape, which changes with the passing of the seasons. Some are caught mid-flight, others at rest and others with freshly caught prey, almost always alone but sometimes in flocks following their migratory routes.

Stepen Gill was born in Bristol, UK, in 1971. He became interested in photography in early childhood thanks to his father, a keen amateur who taught him how to process film and print his own images in his attic darkroom. As an adult he worked at Magnum Photos as part of the archive staff assisting photographers and processing black and white film. In 1997 he left Magnum to work full-time on his own projects and in 2005 he founded his own publishing house, Nobody Books, as his books are a key aspect of his artistic practice. His publications include Please Notify the Sun (2021), The Pillar –which won the Author Book Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2019–, Pond Life (2019), Look Both Ways (2018), Night Procession (2017), Pigeons, Hackney Kisses, Best Before End, Talking to Ants (2014), among many others. His photographs are held in various public and private collections including The Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, The Museum of London, Sprengel Museum, Tate, Centre National de l’audiovisual, Archive of Modern Conflict, The Photographers’ Gallery, Palais des Beaux Arts, Leighton House Museum or Haus Der Kunst. His work has also been exhibited in different museums, institutions and art centres, as well as in international festivals such as Les Recontres d’Arles, the Toronto Photography Festival, Images Vevey or PHotoEspaña.

The images exhibited in Getxophoto are extracts from the book of this series published in 2019 by Nobody.

OUTDOOR INSTALLATION

12 – STEPHEN GILL
The Pillar

VENUE: Elevator of Ereaga’s beach