LEEDS.- Photography has made sculpture mobile since the birth of the medium. Photographing Sculpture looks at the ways in which photographs move objects, whether activating them in situ, locating them in different environments or charting their travels across a period of time. The exhibition features some eighty images, from vintage late nineteenth century prints to present day photographs, all drawn from the Henry Moore Institute's unique archive, which forms part of the sculpture collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries.

Photographing Sculpture demonstrates the importance of photography both in making sculpture visible and in determining the way it is presented to the world. Some photographs in the exhibition visualise the physical movement of objects, documenting monumental statues on their journey from the studio to the pedestal, installations in various different configurations and performance pieces in progress, in which the repositioning of body and object is intrinsic to the work. For instance, a series of images show the stone statue of King Alfred by William Hamo Thornycroft, measuring 4.5 metres and weighing 15 tonnes, being transported by train and cart and hoisted into its present position on Winchester High Street in 1901.

Other photographs create the illusion of movement, presenting a work from all angles or staging it to emphasise a dynamic arrangement or to bring a work to life. There are examples of portrait busts posed humorously with real people and of small scale figure and animal sculptures placed in outdoor environments, to make them appear life size and part of the real world.

Further series of photographs record the same sculpture in different locations and contrasting environments, exploring the relationship between context and perception. In some cases they represent a concerted investigation by the artist, in others a gathering together of images that record a work's history, potentially charting its progress from studio to foundry to diverse sites of display and storage. The statue of the mermaid 'Miranda' by Arthur Fleischmann, commissioned by Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Co for a fountain at the Festival of Britain in 1951, is particularly well documented, with images that record its modelling and casting, its original location in the Jubilee Gardens at South Bank, London, and its later more prosaic home outside the Lockheed headquarters in Leamington Spa.

Across all categories, the exhibition displays both carefully choreographed shots, intended for publication and more informal snaps taken by artists and technicians in their studios, workshops and gardens, which record fleeting and private moments in the life of the work.

Photographing Sculpture: How the Image Moves the Object shows the importance of photography to the study of sculpture, a key strand in the Institute's current research programme. The selection is drawn entirely from the Henry Moore Institute Archive that contains a diverse range of papers relating to British sculptural practice from the eighteenth century to the present day, with particularly important collections of photographs and drawings. The Archive is part of the sculpture collections of Leeds Museums and Art Gallery, which are developed in a unique partnership with the Henry Moore Institute.