Saw Dana Popa’s – ‘not Natasha’ exhibition about sex trafficking. In contrast to the film Lilya 4-ever there was very little direct imagery – it was more references to the people left behind, the spaces that are empty, and some scarred portraits of women that have had their lives wrecked by trafficking. This mean’t there are fewer mixed emotions aroused by the images than more salacious portrayals might have aroused.
In Lilya 4-ever you were left gutted and horrified by what had happened, with this exhibition I came away more with a feeling of grim sadness.
When art photography tackles such a subject, there is always some degree of questioning of the motives of the photographer. Also the photographic treatment of such subjects can sometimes beautify the subject when perhaps it shouldn’t.
I didn’t come away feeling this was the case with this exhibition. It’s certainly worth a repeat visit, more would be seen on a second viewing I would say.
Saw three exhibitions yesterday. Neeta Madahar & Joanna Quinn, and David Moore at Impressions.
Neeta Madahar was quality stuff … my personal favourites her falling seed pods and her photograms – images made without film straight onto paper.
Joanna Quinns animations and drawings – some funny stuff – that woman has a pretty warped mind – will have to go back to watch all the animations sometime.
David Moore’s exhibition ‘The last things’ – photographs taken within a secure ‘secret crisis centre’ for when the world implodes … wasn’t too sure about these. He is known for photographing ‘secret’ places – maybe it was that we have seen similar places in films and also older facilities that are open to the public – I went round one near Brentwood. They were good photos, but didn’t seem to be too novel if that was the intention.
