According to its mission statement: “The
Prix Pictet aims to harness the power of photography – all genres of
photography – to draw global attention to the issues of sustainability,
especially those that concern the environment.” This year’s theme is Consumption.
The exhibition room was smaller than
expected and the work maybe not quite as impactful as the last cycle’s Power theme, but
very interesting nevertheless.
I just saw the sad news that Michael Schmidt died on Saturday, a few days after hearing that he had won the 100,000
Swiss franc prize. He had apparently been too ill to pick up the accolade in person.
His work Lebensmittel is about the mass production of
food and depicts images from factories, farms and slaughterhouses. The presentation reminded me of
the huge Moriyama wall at the Tate Modern joint retrospective with Klein. Schmidt’s approach is much more academic, though. None of the images were impressive in their own right (presumably a
conscious decision?) – reference book style and old-fashioned. The repetition of
lines and rhythms and textures help it to work as montage but I found that the
low contrast of the monochromes, the apparent randomness of colour images interspersed
and the lack of clear narrative left me cold.
And it bothered me slightly that the photograph of the box of cucumbers
(?) was the only one that was repeated.
Judges said his work
was "an epic and hugely topical investigation into the ways in which we
feed ourselves" but I didn’t feel that this ‘investigation’ really
revealed anything that we did not already know.
I would have preferred to see this as a rapid slide show, with its 1940s/50s
documentary feel.
My two favourites were
Mishka Henner and Hong Hao. I have a
soft spot for Henner having heard his thoughts on art and appropriation at the
OCA student weekend in Leeds and I do genuinely find this work (Beef & Oil)
to be extremely powerful. It doesn’t
trouble me at all that he didn’t press the shutter for these images although I
can understand that some people would baulk at describing him as a
‘photographer’ rather than an ‘artist’. A fascinating can of worms:
Whatever Henner is or
isn’t, his work always captures my imagination and I think this set should be a
real eye-opener to many people who have not contemplated the scale of US cattle
farms. The size of the feedlots is
almost as unfathomable from a space-eye view as from the ground and Henner
creates stunning art out of a repulsive reality. The two pieces on display at
the V&A were by far the most appealing in the room, to my eye, as well as
creating a very emotional response.
Whilst Henner nails the big picture of consumption, Hong Hao succeeds by effectively showing
us consumption on a very personal level. His project My Things started in 2001 with Hao
scanning objects and then creating large scale collages. These images are
beautiful and work on a number of different levels visually. Seen small online they look like bright,
beautiful patterns; up close, the full sized images provide an incredible
journal of daily life. We see juxtapositions, undersides, angles and throw-aways
that normally have no significance, on an epic scale. I would love to see all of the work together in one place.
Simple, painstaking,
brilliant.
Of the others on the
shortlist, I found the work of Adam Bartos to be quite appealing. His series
Yard Sale consists of some simple still life compositions showing the recycling
culture in the US – a delightful contrast to mass consumerism and
‘Walmartisation’. These are quiet, voyeuristic depictions - there are no people present; light seems to be natural, even a little clumsy at times; there is not a central focus
with messy compositions and elements spilling out of frame. Bartos uses colour,
texture, light and line to create delightful images you can gaze at for a long
time.
Juan Fernando Herrán’s Escalas explores the blurring of boundaries
between urban and rural areas and particularly the lack of living space in
Medellin, a large city in Colombia. We
see the signs of the humans taking over of the landscape and even mundane
subject matter has been presented beautifully here. The colours are warm and
earthy giving a warm homely feel to even the bleakest of spaces. These look like film sets to me. I wonder if the V & A deliberately placed
Herrán’s images either side of a doorway?
The Untitled 2012 series by Abraham Oghobase stands out for being all
black and white, heavily contrasted and nicely coherent as a series. The subject matter again addresses the issue
of urban space, showing how in Lagos every bit of wall space is used for
painted classified ads. The photographer places himself in the images, performing
alongside the theme of the ads (eg piano lessons, laundry, car services). The work does not really say ‘consumption’ to
me or have much resonance on an emotional level but it does appeal
aesthetically – I really like the heavy contrast and the rich textures and the
gritty, dynamic street feel.
Motoyuki Daifu’s Project Family is introduced as “My mother sleeps every
day. My Dad does chores. My brothers fight. There are trash bags all over the
place. Half-eaten dinners, cat poop, mountains of clothes: this is my lovable
daily life, and a lovable Japan.” This
series did not work for me on any level. I found the lighting too harsh and
depth of field in the foreground to be too soft. Clive said that these elements and the blown
out bits were “all part of the semiotic” and we all discussed how differently
these images could have been. They just
didn’t strike me as being very authentic, for some reason, although they have
clearly achieved a sense of manageable chaos and claustrophobia.
Comparisons were made with Richard Billingham and Stephen Shore
photographing food, by students who are much cleverer than I. It just reminded me of my Aunt Lil’s house in
Keighley and I kicked myself for not photographing it while before it was too
late.
Rineke Dijkstra has created an appealing series of portraits of Almerisa,
a Bosnian refugee. We watch as the five
year old grows up and transitions into an adult in her new surroundings in the
Netherlands. There are some very nice touches – how her feet can’t reach the
ground for the first few years but later are firmly and defiantly rooted or
tucked under her; her body posture –in the early teens, showing rebellion
through to confident grounded adulthood; the type of chair; the vertical and
horizontal lines; neutral lighting; colour blocks etc. Good mise-en-scène, in other words.
I admire Dijkstra’s work and understand
that any theme is open to a wide interpretation but this just did not fit well
for me - I cannot really see the link with ‘consumption’.
Allan Sekula’s Fish Story similarly felt
out of place but in this case because the images looked so dated. I am not sure exactly what the series is
about even after reading the artist’s statement. There is a strong documentary feel to these
images, which were taken in the early 90s, and it makes for fairly
unchallenging viewing but didn’t evoke anything much in me.
Laurie Simmons’ series The Love Doll was
the most troubling. I am still none the wiser about what the artist is actually
trying to say – in fact her statement on the Prix Pictet website comes across
as slightly unhinged to my ears (“I began to tease out a personality from this
commodified subject and allowed her persona to emerge.”). There are very many complex issues at play
such as identity, exploitation, fetishisation, surrogacy and control here as
well as the gender landmine and the allegedly central theme of
consumption.
I am not too familiar with Simmons’ other
work so there is almost certainly much more context to this but, in isolation,
I found it to be quite creepy. It reminded me of Emma Donoghue’s novel Room (and
so many terrifying true stories of the abduction and imprisonment of women) and
of George Saunders’ The Semplica-Girls Diaries.
The lighting and composition are superb and I do applaud this kind of
conceptual work but I confess I could not look at it for very long.
Tea Coffee Cappuccino includes a bare
bottom, in full daylight, on a busy street, so this must be Boris
Mikhailov! The series aims to chronicle
the changes in the photographer’s hometown of Kharkov, where blatant consumerism
has become rampant. “The reality of globalization has come and extended to the
places where we live and rest. A flux of cheap commodities has conquered
ubiquitously, creating a colourful new plastic reality.” The Prix Pictet website does not (cannot) display this
work very accurately so it was quite a surprise to see it “in the flesh”. The images are snapshot sized, which pulls
the viewer in to an intriguing world. It is happy and bright, colourful and
lively but the angles, chaotic subject matter and juxtapositions manage to create
a sense of dystopia. These could be sets for an Andrea Arnold movie.
All in all, a very interesting collection
of images and ideas in this small room at the V & A and another great OCA study
visit.
Take-aways to think about for my
own work….
- Narrative is important unless every
individual image can stand up for itself
- Ordinary stuff can be very compelling if
collected and presented in an authentic way
- My shots of Dad’s garage are almost as good
as Bartos’ Yard Sale images
- Photoshop does just have to be about
manipulation, it can also work very well to present truths more powerfully
- Develop something visually appealing into a
more compelling narrative and show more context (eg doorways and windows)
- If family and friends talk about something
in such a way that it is clearly extraordinary (like Aunt Lil’s house) then it
is certainly worth photographing
- Size matters – small can be very powerful
too
- Never underestimate how different a print
on a gallery wall can be from an image on a website
