The Photographers Gallery isn’t London’s only game in town, though it might sometimes seem to be. Started in 1971, it is a private institution comparable to ICP. Since London wasn’t in the midst of a photo fete like the one in Paris, only a few other shows were on while I was there. That two of them were very good therefore seemed a pretty high rate of return on the time spent in galleries. If Amy Bedik’s show reminded me of Jacques Wendenbergh’s in certain ways, Les Evan’s and Fionuala Boyd ’s reminded me of Ken Snelson’s. A husband and wife who collaborate on Photo-Realist painting, Boyd and Evans have been interested in photography itself ever since he brought a camera along during a year spent in America in 1976. For the work in the London show the two used pictures Evans made then, particularly of landscapes in the West, and collaged onto them figures from other photographs taken at the same time. The result was a panorama-shaped print that was arresting because, using the techniques and precision of Photo-Realism, the photographers had made the image appear nearly seamless. Their work renews the delightful confusion between real and surreal on which much great photography has been based.

—Colin Westerbeck