Jeff Wall Photograph Critique

This is an image by Jeff Wall. In this image, we see an Asian man walking down a sidewalk being overtaken by a white male who seems to be dragging along a white female. Its during evening along an industrial part of town. Presumably, all these people are going home after work.

Formally, the arrangement of the three people in the frame is such that our eye goes directly to the Asian person and then goes to the white male. Here we notice that the white male is slanting his eyes to insult the Asian person. We notice that the Asian person is depicted in such a way that is not entirely clear whether (a) He notices the white person and chooses to ignore it or (b) he is just in the process of turning his head but not yet registered the other people. We then look at the female in the photograph, who seems to be lagging behind the man and squinting her eyes. At this point, it is not clear whether she is squinting due to the sunlight or she is expressing disapproval/disgust at her companion's behavior

Jeff Wall is successful with this image in conveying something that goes beyond just the formal aspects of the image. He is calling into question the stereotypes that we hold and how we use them to denigrate other people. Also, maybe racial (and other kinds of) stereotypes exist in our community and sometimes we just haven't come across them (or we have but we choose to look away and ignore them)

Jim Goldberg & Joel Sternfeld

1) Jim Goldberg - Rich and Poor (Artist Name is incorrect on the link as Jim Goldstein)

2)Formally, the works are real simple documentation of rich and poor people that Goldberg wanted to show to others. By juxtaposing Rich people in their environment and poor people in their surroundings, Goldberg has given a strong voice to the class divide that exists in modern America

3) The photographs by themselves have a strong conceptual bond as we are shuffling back and forth from rich people to poor people and we can see that the artist is drawing attention to their condition. However, what makes the concept very powerful is the handwritten notes that accompany the photographs. The captions reveals a little bit about the psyche of the individual and here we see that sometimes the words and the surroundings don't coincide with each other. Within just a few sentences, we get a strong emotional content in many of the photographs that make them stronger at capturing the human condition than just the photographs alone

4) Jim Goldberg focusses mainly on people and their surroundings. However, in each piece of art, the photograph takes less prominence as there is more space for written text. This brings, at the very least, an equal focus to the text and the photograph to the viewer.

5) The photograph and the text combined end up clearly articulating Goldberg's idea of juxtaposing, not just visually, but also the thoughts of the two different sets of people that exist in our society.

6) If Goldberg started out with an idea of empathetically recording the rich and poor people in the US and also giving a voice to their thoughts, I believe that the series is very successful at addressing this concept. Even though they are aesthetically strong, I believe that the artist's main concern is finding the "voice" of these people that he photographs and I think that the words added to the photograph definitely add more strength to the series

Further Research:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.BookDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3R151ZH9

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/30/books/a-touch-of-two-classes.html

http://ilikethisart.net/?p=4518

1) Joel Sternfeld - On this Site

2) Sternfeld presents his images in this series as a strictly documentary recording of places. Interestingly, Sterfeld chose to portray his documentary work in color format than the traditional B/W format for journalistic work. Throughout the series, there are no people in any of the photographs.

3) Given the fact that all the places chosen by Sternfeld are places where there has been loss of life, it is interesting to note that there are no people present in any of the photographs. Also, the choice of color photography works well in this series. With the use of color and choosing almost a "everyday/commonplace" vantage point for most of his photographs, Sternfeld succeeds in creating a sense of complacency in the viewer. When the viewer reads more about the photograph and the bloodshed associated with it, it creates a stronger resonance to the images

4) People are conspicuously absent from every photograph in the series. The location of the camera is conscious so as to not romanticize the images, but present them as our everyday surroundings as they exist

5) The artist uses the photographs of the places/landscapes where tragedy has occurred a long time ago, but where there is no trace of the bloodshed or the lives lost. Some of the locations in this series are all to familiar to any viewer (Mt. Rushmore, Metro Bus Shelter). Showing these everyday locations helps the artist's concept that even though there is tragedy and bloodshed amongst us, there is no "gravestone" or "remembrances" for many of these in our daily life.

6) Sternfeld is pursuing the concept that killing and bloodshed happens amongst us all the time. However, we are more influenced by the media and how it chooses to portray it. By photographing everyday places without any fanfare, Sternfeld attempts to show the commonness of bloodshed in everyday life. In addition, the use of terse text to describe these photographs makes the crimes even starker and help strengthen the viewpoint of the artist. I believe that Sternfeld is very successful at getting his point across through this series of work.

Further Research:

http://documentaryworks.org/punctum/onthissite.htm

Pink and Blue Project - JeongMee Yoon

This is not exactly addiction, but it definitely falls under "obsession". Here's what the artist has to say about his work:
"My current work, The Pink and Blue Projects are the topic of my thesis. This project explores the trends in cultural preferences and the differences in the tastes of children (and their parents) from diverse cultures, ethnic groups as well as gender socialization and identity. The work also raises other issues, such as the relationship between gender and consumerism, urbanization, the globalization of consumerism and the new capitalism"

The portfolio is located here: http://www.jeongmeeyoon.com/aw_pinkblue.htm