To be honest I never really paid too much attention to the whole Brighton Biennial thing this year organised by Mr Parr. When I first heard that Alec Soth was going to do his thing in Brighton I was intrigued and eager to see just how well he could pull off shooting in the UK and had come to the conclusion in my mind that he simply wouldn't abe able to pull it off. After all its one thing shooting in your own country and having an understanding of the place, but I have yet to see an American photographer cross the Atlantic and do work as good as they produce back home. Think Eggleston with those dreadful Paris images or Sternfeld's crazy i-Dubai and you will see what I mean without me going into the whole American photographers only working in the States thing.
Basically Soth was told at on arrival to the UK that as he had no work visa he was not allowed to take pictures or he would go to jail (daft isn't it). And so Soth gave his camera to his seven year old daughter so she could take pictures and in turn exhibit them at the Biennial. Full story here.
At first I thought the whole thing was a real gimmick. But you know what, the photographs are brilliant. Just don't tell the authorities...
No comments:
Post a Comment