Youth Without Age, Life Without Death: Chapter 1

‘Youth Without Age, Life Without Death: Chapter 1’ is a photographic exploration of the fragility of life. This new body of work is concerned with themes of time, journeys and the cycle of life and death. Set in the Romanian landscape and created over the past four years, ‘Youth Without Age, Life Without Death: Chapter 1’ takes inspiration from a local folk tale, following the story of a young prince on his quest for eternal life. The work sensitively responds to the strong role that folklore plays within Romanian culture. “I needed to escape, to begin an adventure in my search for meaningful answers. The country’s hazy purple evening light and untouched land allowed me to gather my thoughts. I began to think about how I could visually explore the idea of life and death, that is when I stumbled across the folk tale ‘Youth Without Age and Life Without Death’”. Using this tale to guide her, Pannack has created a body of work which is a poetic collision of reality and fantasy. Symbols and cues are playfully introduced and encourage the viewer to embark on their own journey. The series presents a combination of still life, landscapes and portraits shot on expired film. ‘Youth Without Age, Life Without Death: Chapter 1’ is the first chapter of a larger body of work, which will explore other regions of the Balkans, each time selecting a local folk tale as a source of inspiration. Further to this, the gallery will also present a curated selection of Pannack’s popular blog ‘Image of the Week’, which will be accompanied by stories and texts, written by the artist, offering an open and honest insight into her practice. Laura Pannack is a London based photographer. She was educated at the University of Brighton, Central Saint Martins College of Art and LCP. Her work has been extensively exhibited and published both in the UK and internationally, including at The National Portrait Gallery, The Houses of Parliament, Somerset House and the Royal Festival Hall in London. In 2010 Pannack received first prize in the Portrait Singles category of the World Press Photo Awards. She has won and been shortlisted for several awards including The Sony World Photography Awards, The Magenta Foundation Award and Lucies IPA. She was awarded the Vic Odden by The Royal Photographic Society Award for a notable achievement in the art of photography by a British photographer aged 35 or under. More recently she received the John Kobal Award for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. In 2015 Youth Without Age, Life Without Death received a Directors Choice in the Center Awards and as a winner of Lens Culture Award.