Double Take: A Conversation with Clare Grafik

Abstract

This interview between Clare Grafik, Head of Exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery, and José Neves reflects on the conception, curatorial framework, and legacy of Double Take: Drawing and Photography (2016), a dual-site exhibition presented by The Photographers’ Gallery and Drawing Room in London. The conversation examines how the exhibition brought together historical and contemporary practices to reconsider the relationship between drawing and photography through questions of surface, materiality, gesture, labour, authorship, and chance. Grafik discusses the exhibition’s focus on the photograph as a physical object, the role of inscription and mark-making, and the ways in which both media were destabilised through processes involving repetition, bodily movement, and partial loss of control. The interview also addresses the parallel exhibition at Drawing Room, the inclusion of moving image and computational practices, and the role of Loose Associations, The Photographers’ Gallery’s in-house journal, in extending the exhibition’s concerns into digital culture and contemporary forms of drawing.