George Osodi: from ‘Oil Rich Niger Delta’, 2007, digital projection. George Osodi is represented by Z Photographic, London

Exhibition Preview - Fragile Democracy at The Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, until June 21 2008.

A new exhibition of photography at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland brings together a selection of photographers and artists who document alternative cultures and subcultures from countries in a state of economic and political transition.

Fragile Democracy features many newly commissioned works and photographs seen in the UK for the first time that capture the subtle social characteristics of particular groups.

Acting as a centrepiece to these new provocative works is a selection of photographs by the veteran photographer August Sander. Spanning the years 1928 to 1938, these 15 remarkable works document democracy and dictatorship in interwar Europe and are a departure from his familiar portrait work.

Immo Klink, from ‘Eurotopia’, 2004-8. Commissioned for Fragile Democracy. Supported by Arts Council England

Another German born photographer, the London-based Immo Klink, contributes a series of pictures documenting 12 different communities across Europe, capturing their architecture and ways of life.

George Osodi’s body of work ‘Oil Rich Niger Delta’ documents Nigeria’s transformation into Africa's biggest exporter of oil, which accounts for roughly 95 per cent of the country’s export trade.

Osodi’s digital images both celebrate West Africa’s extraordinary landscapes alongside its everyday life, as well as exposing some harsh economic realities.

Nontsikelelo Veleko, from ‘Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder’, dye sublimation print, 2008. Courtesy Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg. In 2007 Veleko was commissioned as part of the ‘Changing Faces’ project, an EC Culture 2000 project hosted by the IPRN at the University of Sunderland

South African photographer Nontsikelelo Veleko has documented a subculture of urban ‘dandies’ in Johannesburg and Cape Town, for whom extravagant costume provides a means of self-expression.

America’s Deep South is the focus for New Yorker Salome Oggenfuss, whose work documents communities outside the American mainstream at demolition derby races, trailer parks, re-enactments, and county fairs.

Parisian artist Cyprien Gaillard’s uses video to explore the suburbs of Eastern and Western Europe. ‘Desniansky Raion’ travels from the suburbs of Kiev, from which the work takes it name, to those of Saint Petersburg where the artist documents a battle between gangs; to Parisian high-rise flats, the unexpected site of extravagant nighttime illuminations.

This is an exhibition preview. If you have seen this exhibition, why not let us know what you think?