Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery

Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery is delighted to present a new exhibition of photographs by Colin Hampden-White: The Greatest Winemakers.

This exclusive series of portraits of the winemakers of Bordeaux continues Hampden-White's focus on capturing people in their environment and reflects his other great passion: wine.

Much of the discourse surrounding wine relies upon a conjectured persona: wine as a ‘being’. We posit a body, a character, conceptualising our sensory experience in anthropomorphic terms. This series of photographs focuses on the relationship between wine and maker; particularly how the finished article encapsulates characteristics of the winemaker himself. Hampden-White has peeled back the label on the wines and explored the personality behind the product.
 
The winemakers themselves are rarely photographed, and the manner in which Bordeaux is presented to the world is delicately managed, so Hampden-White was conscious that exposing them in this way would invoke certain sensitivities.
 
The projects success would directly depend on whether all 20 winemakers would agree to be photographed. Some of these Châteaux are notoriously media-shy, . and the winemakers who own or run them have exceptionally busy schedules. The possibility of persuading all 20 to be photographed in a single year, let alone within a period of six weeks, seemed remote.
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Through contacts in the wine trade Hamden-White was able to join an en primeur campaign last March where he saw the Châteaux and met as many of the winemakers as possible. Gradually, over weeks of correspondence, all 20 agreed to be photographed.

The resulting series is a ode to the region, the product and the personalities.