Recent Articles
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"The Constant Gaze" or the faith of photojournalism in Guatemala.
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A Few Words About Me and My Work
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Invites 1. Matt Siber
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Invites First Post!
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Of Interest – Luciana Lamothe
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News
"The Constant Gaze" or the faith of photojournalism in Guatemala.
Posted by Daylight Books on
In a country where the sole possession a camera can jeopardise the bearer's integrity, being a photojournalist is not only an act of resistance but also one of faith. Faith in that the acknowledgement of such a situation by a wider audience will somehow improve it. In that by showing it to the world, capturing it in a still frame, it might become less real, less dangerous. As in a place far away from the witness.
This, however, certainly almost never happens. In fact, the situations and scenes that are usually depicted by the five Guatemalan photographers whose work is on display, fill the newspaper's pages as much as the citizens' nightmares with sights of death and sorrow. And yet, it has to be done. History, visual history, cannot but help us understand better; it makes us stop, reflect, and ask ourselves what is there to do about it. Perhaps it even makes us understand that society, and the other, is also our business. What usually happens is that, because of a constant bombardment of visual production from about every aspect of daily life, these images often loose their primary objective. Instead of denouncing atrocious stories, they become mere illustrations to which jaded eyes pay little or no attention.
In a small but sharp exhibition curated by Cuban specialist Valia Garzón and presented at the Centro Cultural de España in Guatemala City, photography has been removed form the newspapers' and magazines' pages and displayed together in a attempt to make of these five readings of Guatemala's past and present, a sensible account of what has been happening to this poignant Central American country over the last 30 years. Indeed, Rolando González's work refers to the civil war that thrashed the country for over three decades while Doriam Morales presents in an up-close and personal way, that violence that has, once again, taken the country to its knees over the last few years. In that way, some of the indifference that has slipped into their reading by its constant presence on the local media has been re-presented to the same daily viewers. The refreshing setting thus renewing the images' effectiveness.
Other works in the exhibition include: Jesus Alfonso's investigation on the cult to the hybrid Maximón saint, Emerson Díaz's depiction of the children that live and work in the city dump and Moisés Castillo's portrait of pain and catastrophe.
As Garzón states in her introductory essay, being a photojournalist in Guatemala requires not only technical expertise but also enough cold blood to capture a reality marked by violence and pain. Further, the images are captivating and convincing, and for these reasons, the craftsmen of the daily image deserve recognition and the acknowledgement that the truth they provide is essential to understanding a country's reality. In addition they remind us of that decisive moment on which photography once poured its foundations.
'La mirada constante' is on view through November at the Centro Cultural de España in Guatemala City, Guatemala
A Few Words About Me and My Work
Posted by Daylight Books on
Remarkably enough, this is my first ever blog entry. Most of my friends and colleagues have their own blogs but I've resisted the pressure to start my own. When Brian Ulrich asked me to participate in this blog for Daylight, I felt that the timing was perfect. For one, I really like the idea of a specific time frame to work in. There is a clear beginning and end to the process which should end up encapsulating this short time period in a definable work. It also happens to coincide with one of the most interesting, worrisome, frightening and hopeful times in world history. I have a BA in history from The University of Vermont so history has long been an integral part of my consciousness and has helped immensely in shaping my world and artistic view.
There are several issues I would like to write about in the next fours weeks. Much of it will deal with the many thoughts I've had recently regarding art, economics and politics. I am particularly interested/concerned about how the current major changes in the world order will affect art, both on the macro scale (galleries, museums, auctions) and on the micro scale (the individual artists). As blogs are intended to be a forum, I would also like to address issues or questions that readers are thinking about.
For this first post, I thought I would begin with an introduction in order to give some context. I was born in 1972 in Chicago but I was brought up in the Boston area. I spent seven years in Burlington, VT, four of which were spent getting my BA from The University of Vermont in history and geography. The next three years were spent in Canton, NY where I worked full-time as the University Photographer at St. Lawrence University. It was these three years in a remote area of New York State that gave me the impetus to apply to MFA programs ultimately bringing me to Chicago and Columbia College in 2000. I finished my MFA in photography in 2003 and I've been working as a professional artist and educator ever since.
My work as a commercial photographer in my early career has greatly influenced my personal artwork. I fumbled about in graduate school for a couple of years before finally finding my voice through The Untitled Project. The project is a deconstruction of systems of communication in the public space through the use of photography and digital imaging. Each piece is comprised of two elements: one photograph with the text digitally removed from the image, and one graphical text piece that maps out the removed text on a white field. The project has helped me to explore and understand the complexity of the myriad forms of communication used to inform, influence and control large groups of people.
Untitled #35, 2006 from The Untitled Project.
Untitled #35 (image)
Untitled #35 (text)
The following project grew out of The Untitled Project as I directed my artistic attention toward text and signage. Floating Logos may not have come about if I wasn't living in the midwestern United States where the land is flat and the signs are extremely high up. The mountainous and forested landscapes of New England do not lend themselves to tall signs like these. The signs are photographed where they are (they are not super-imposed) and I have digitally removed the support structure. Series I is comprised largely of verticals with the ground left out of the image in order to emphasize the disconnect. Series II is taken in a traditional landscape format where the signs are allowed to float in context with their surroundings.
Burger King, 2004 from Floating Logos Series I
Leroy Merlin, 2006 from Floating Logos Series II
As I continued to think about visual and literary communication as well as marketing and branding, my appreciation for the power of commercial art and design grew. The Compare to… project seeks to deal directly with these issues by using generic or off-brand products found in grocery and dollar stores. By mimicking the visual elements of the major brands, these companies reinforce a set of visual signifiers that have become culturally ubiquitous. Certain colors, shapes and designs have come to signify, not only a brand, but now the product itself. The products are presented on a graphical backdrop created in Photoshop to give the aesthetic of an advertisement. Many of the products do not have brands attached to them at all giving way to the idea of the product itself being advertised rather than the abstract notion of the brand.
Mouthwash, 2006-7 from the Compare to… project.
As Compare to… began to move away from photography by creating a graphical space rather than a window into 3D space, I moved a step further away from photography by working with words alone. The Lists series (working title) does something similar to Compare to… but uses the names of products rather than their packaging to help us think about the ways in which they are marketed to the public. It also becomes a somewhat nerdy study of language and semantics.
Detergent (left) and Drugs (right) from the Lists series.
This should give a good sense of where I am coming from and how I got to where I am now. My work tends to feed on itself with one project leading directly into the next. The threads are usually very clear when the work is placed in chronological context. In the coming weeks, I will make postings about some of my work in progress that should make more sense in context with the earlier projects.
I will be away for a few days this week for Thanksgiving but I will post again when I get back on Sunday or Monday.
- MS
Invites 1. Matt Siber
Posted by Daylight Books on
When I first started graduate school in Chicago, Matt Siber was one of the people I met who was pleasant enough to not only school me on the inner workings of the MFA program (he was one year ahead of me) but generous enough to lend one of his medium format cameras for several months. This began a friendship that took us photographing on road trips, traveling to lectures and exhibits together and sharing ideas and strategies. This summer I was honored to be in Matt's wedding and returned the favor by some super slick moves on the dance floor.
Matt Siber's photographs subverting advertising and consumer culture have had a profound and liberating impact on the visual world. Matt's early Untitled project separated the visual noise of our modern cities. By digitally removing the text from his landscape photographs of signs, signage and displays and recreating that same text in an diptych image, Matt empowers us to gain a footing in the ad surroundings. His investigating on the hegemonic use of the ad led him to further series Floating Logos (photographs of towering ad pole which seem to defy gravity in an all too familiar foreshadowing) and recently Compare To (product shots which act as advertisements themselves only for the no frills copies of brand name products).
Matt received his MFA from Columbia College in Chicago in 2003. He currently has a solo exhibition at the Billi Rubin Gallery in Berlin. His work is featured in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography. He's much more international than any of my other friends and his work is represented by the Galeria Antoni Pinyol in Reus, Spain, Galeria La Fabrica in Madrid, and Galerie f 5.6 in Munich. He has been published in ArtForum, Flash Art, Aperture and EXIT Magazine and he has received grants from the Aaron Siskind Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council.
Have questions for Matt about his work? Leave them in the comments.
Invites First Post!
Posted by Daylight Books on
Some time ago friend and photographer, Bill Sullivan and I were brainstorming about the blog and what it could and could not do. It occurred to us that far too often many were trying to impose older (non internet) forms upon the photography blogs rather than focus on what they are indeed good at. It also became clear that the blog was a wonderful way to get insight into ones artistic character. With this in mind we approached a few museums with the idea of creating a blog residency. Where for one month an artist who normally doesn't do much blogging would be invited to post. None took us up but we held the idea until Taj asked me to contribute to the Daylight blog. We thought not only could it provide accessibility to an artist who normally doesn't have that sort of broadcast., but it could be a further understanding of concepts, influences and working process.
So here's the guidelines/rules on Invites.
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• Artists will post (at least) 5 posts. They can post as many as they like in the one month period.
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• Readers can post questions to artists in the each monthly intro of the artist. It is up to the Invitee as to whether or not they respond to all or any of those questions. There are a few reasons for this, one being that we don't want the content of the Invitee posts to be only dictated by the readers. Another is most are simply so busy (which is why they don't have blogs themselves).
That's as complicated as it gets now on to our first Invite!
Of Interest – Luciana Lamothe
Posted by Daylight Books on
Luciana Lamothe is a criminal. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she stalks the streets of her home city, making mischief and sowing mayhem at all hours of the day and night: overturned potted plants; the doorbells of whole apartment blocks rung incessantly; padlocks added onto chains, necessitating bolt cutters; chairs deconstructed in swanky lobbies; cans of paint spilled. What (perhaps) makes Lamothe different then your run-of-the-mill petty criminal is that she positions her acts of vandalism as urban interventions, designed to rearrange, reimagine, and generally shake up urban space. Also, she takes pictures.
Formally trained at the Prilidiano Pueyrredon Nacional School in Buenos Aires, Lamothe’s work, which also extends into sculpture, assemblage, and installation, marries the aesthetics of vandalism to the legacy of conceptual artistic practice. Her work interrogates the dialectical relationships between construction and destruction, the social and the anti-social, and--possibly unintentionally--the revolutionary and the merely destructive. Recently, her work was included in the 5th Berlin Biennial, where she created a site-specific work in front of the Palast der Republik, the former seat of the East German parliament that is in the process of being demolished, which explored the social implications of architectural memory and it’s erasure.
Looking at the photographs of her urban interventions, it almost seems as if Lamothe’s pictures could have been made by Gabriel Orozco run amok, as if he got fed up with his delicate brand of incidental poetry and decided to rip apart the system one brick at a time. As an aesthetic strategy, however, Lamothe’s photographs perhaps most closely resemble Guy Debord’s 1959 book Mémoires, which was, famously, bound in sandpaper so that it would damage books that it was placed next to on the shelf. Of course, like Debord’s gesture, Lamothe’s interventions have questionable political efficacy—but they certainly have teeth.