Swordsman Suit Up in Josie Hall’s Sublime Kendo Series

Summary

• Photographer Josie Hall is set to present her debut show at Have A Butchers in London from April 17 through May 1
• The show explores the craft of kendo, a modern Japanese martial art, visualized through her haunting, stylized signature

Discipline and ritual — in kendo, the Japanese martial art that translates to the “way of the sword,” technique is only half of the story. “What interested me was how the way of the sword correlates directly to how one operates in daily life,” photographer Josie Hall told Another about her new series, Red Patience. “It’s not just about combat, but how it acts as a framework for living: discipline, composure under pressure, responsibility and respect.”

Red Patience takes the spotlight in the London-based artist’s debut show at Have A Butchers gallery in Haggerston. Running from April 17 through May 1, the exhibition puts the lens on the centuries-old practice of kendo, translating its ritualized choreography into a suite of sublime captures.

Rather than documenting the sport straight-up, Hall fractures, bends and layers masked kendoka in large-scale prints. Across the series, figures appear suspended, saturated in chemical hues. Swordsman, ghostly overlayed atop themselves, muddy the line between opponent and self. Hall’s study of motion extends beyond still images into a collaborative video work with artist Mike Lamont. Scored by Cheng Zhuang, the moving-image piece pins down the series’ fixation on light, color and, namely, motion, capturing the tension of kendoka at rest and mid-strike.

 

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This sensitivity to form and style traces back to Hall’s early days in fashion. She first broke onto the scene by way of styling, under the wing of photographer and stylist Venetia Scott, and later Nick Knight. From this, she sharpened an instinct for surface and composition. Her eye, which drifts between documentation and dream, is seamlessly carried across her personal work, editorial projects and major fashion campaigns, for the likes of Prada, Isamaya Ffrench, Balenciaga and Martine Rose.

Kendo, then, with its balance of ancient discipline and contemporary performance, is the perfect subject. Hall’s images, at large, find home in the sweet spot between the past and present, dream and nightmare, visualizing nostalgia as its felt: wispy, fleeting and almost haunting. “I like it when you’re looking at the image and you’re not entirely sure what you’re looking at, and you question how it got to that point,” she described in a 2022 interview. “It’s about finding a limbo between both.”

Have A Butchers
1a Dunston Rd,
London E8 4FA, UK