Visit
to the Photographers’ Gallery.
There was a study visit to the photographers
gallery planned but I am not able make. I went to see the Deutsche Borse
Photography prize contenders outside this visit.
I am a fan of the Cristina De Middle’s
work, The Afronauts. I think it is a
great conceptual work. The blurred lines between fact and fiction counters, in
my opinion, the immediate conclusion one gets to when considering whether there
could ever have been a Zambian space mission. The fact that there was, even
though it was misguided and floored from the outset, is one of the surprises
the book springs on you.
The found image verses the found image. The
image sourced / searched for using the Internet. The image sourced walking the
streets or hometown verses the image conceived through fact but delivers a
fiction in a format that projects a truth. Or does it?
The Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin work
is a powerful critique of war
Chris Killip’s work seems to be the odd one
out. His work is from the classic era of documentary photography. Reading Gerry
Badger’s essay on Killip, gives you a greater insight into Chris Killip’s work.
What wasn’t obvious to me while at the photographers gallery was the political
aspects of Killip’s images. Looking at the images again in the exhibition
catalogue at home, it is easier to see the commentary in the chosen images.
Even though there is an underlying politic
in Killip’s images there seems to be a softness about his images, maybe even an
empathy with the area and people he is documenting. For me, and for this reason,
Killip is the odd one out in the prize competition. It’s either one of two
things, 1, he is the outright winner as in the traditional sense his is a photographic
work in the classic mold. Or 2, his work in this competition is completely out
of place and also out of step with the modern photography that owns up to it
roots in conceptualism and presents it’s modern face with unashamed rigour. By
this I mean, all the other entrants in the completion openly exploit modern
technology to get their message across. Killip’s is the only work that harks
back to another time. Although, his work is as relevant now, in this time of
austerity as it was then.
My winner would be The Afronauts. I think
this conceptual book, based on a fact, challenges your perception of the possibility
of an African nations ability to join the space race and also your perception of
an African nation, at that time and also today. It puts you right at the centre
to challenge your prejudice. Not in a sense of colour prejudice but your prejudice
in the automatic belief that an African space mission is unviable as an idea
let alone for the Zambian nation to actually have setup a government space
mission. Although the actual space mission completely failed and was flawed
from the outset, the books playfully romanticise this idea and from it produces
great images and a great object in the book itself.
Mishka Henner’s work is based on found
images using Google maps to source these images. For me, this is where the
problem lies. Mishka explains his process in an interview on the Photographers’
Gallery’s’ website iv. I think that this type of project, one where
images are found online specifically, are a product of the access to more
images via the internet and because of the mechanised way these images are
made, there is a treasure trove of images waiting to be found and all it needs
is a patient researcher and a computer. I think in this case, the photographer
becomes the curator and presents images that he finds, which the public maybe
curious to see and find interesting but I don’t think it becomes a photographer
photographic work.
In the case of the Adam Broomberg and
Oliver Chanarin’s work they have found images also from the Internet but this
is different. War Primer 2 is based on a book called War Primer by Bertolt Brecht
originally published in 1955 which itself ‘sampled’ newspaper clippings and
placed poems with these clipping to critique the newspapers use of it’s medium.
Broomberg and Chanarin’s work augments Brecht’s by updating it with ‘sampled’
images from the Internet. The difference to Henner’s work is that Broomberg are
searching for images taken originally by someone then uploaded to the Internet
not made by drone and stitching software.
I think the distinction between human and mechanical is were the
difference lies.
But for me, as powerful as the Broomberg and
Chanarin’s work is, it’s the concept and the curating that is powerful
here. It is still a curated work.
30 June 2013
At this point I know that War Primer 2 has
won the Deutsche Borse prize but I would have given it to Cristina.