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……………………………………………………………"That bottle keeps its blink on its side red from horizon." Clark Coolidge………………………………..

Naoya Hatakeyama, Untitled, Osaka, 1998-1999.

(The second in a two-part series from assistant curator of photography Lisa Sutcliffe, who organized both of our current collection exhibitions of Asian photography: The Provoke Era and Photography Now. Lisa posed a single question to the artists whose works are included in Photography Now. Part one is here.)

This week we’re returning to the question Why Photography Now? Photography Now: China, Japan, Korea presents SFMOMA’s new acquisitions by contemporary photographers working in Asia, and was conceptualized as a companion to our current exhibition of postwar Japanese photography.

Even as globalization and technology have allowed for faster and more fluid cross-cultural influence, the artists represented in the show embrace varied approaches and offer diverse personal visions, from Byung-Hun Min’s minimal landscapes that reference traditional Korean ink painting to Hiromi Tsuchida’s distant and vibrantly colored examinations of urban crowds. What they all have in common is an interest in expressing themselves with photography. Since its inception, photography has been used both as a mechanical tool and a method of creating art. With this in mind, I asked each of the artists in Photography Now: China, Japan, Korea to answer the following question: why do you work in photography and how do the particular aspects of the medium affect your artistic decisions?

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Byung-Hun Min, Dustin Shum, Hiromi Tsuchida, Li Lang, Lisa Sutcliffe, Naoya Hatakeyama, Osamu Kanemura, Photography Now, Yan Changjiang, Yu Haibo

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Wang Yishu, Untitled, inkjet print, 2005

(The first in a two-part series from assistant curator of photography Lisa Sutcliffe, who organized both of our current collection exhibitions of Asian photography: The Provoke Era and Photography Now. Lisa posed a single question to the artists whose works are included in Photography Now.)

Photography, with its ability to “mirror” reality, has a more direct connection to the visible world than most other media, including painting and sculpture. It can also alter our perception of reality, either through the artist’s unique perspective, or by manipulation. Examining artistic decisions can reveal quite a bit about how a photograph is understood. Why was this picture made? Who is the intended audience? What did the artist decide to keep inside the frame or to crop out and how does that change our interpretation of the scene? Or perhaps the artist digitally manipulated the image to create something from his or her own imagination. In the digital age, the photographic medium is being redefined and artists are freer to create whatever image they imagine.

Photography Now: China, Japan, Korea presents SFMOMA’s recent acquisitions of photographs by artists working in Asia, and was conceptualized as a companion to our current exhibition of postwar Japanese photography. Even as globalization and technology have allowed for faster and more fluid cross-cultural influence, the artists represented in the show embrace varied approaches and offer diverse personal visions. Many record the changing urban fabric and the development of a new migratory population. What they all have in common is an interest in expressing themselves with photography.

I began to wonder how the rapid cultural transformations, especially in China, might be influencing the growing interest in photography. In addition, I was hoping to find out what intrigues these artists about working with and manipulating the visible world. With this in mind, I asked each artist in the exhibition to answer the same question: why do you work in photography and how do the particular qualities of the medium affect your artistic decisions?

(more…)

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• Exhibitions

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Asako Narahashi, Chen Nong, Feng Bin, Hiroyo Kaneko, Lisa Sutcliffe, Luo Dan, Miyako Ishuichi, Photography Now, Wang Yishu

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Alongside our new curator “One on One” talks, we’re doing occasional ‘one on one’ blog posts, from curators, staff, and public, on a particular work or exhibition they’re interested in. Today’s post is from Lisa Sutcliffe, Assistant Curator of Photography:

Guy Tillim, Presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba enters a stadium in central Kinshasha flanked by his bodyguards, July 2006. Digital pigment print. © Guy Tillim, courtesy Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Please join me tomorrow evening at 6:30pm for a discussion of the work of Guy Tillim, a South-African photographer included in the current exhibition, Face of Our Time. Born in Johannesburg in 1962, Tillim has spent the last twenty years documenting the political, social and economic conditions of African nations as a photojournalist and freelance photographer.

In his recent series Congo Democratic, Tillim describes the political climate leading up to the historic 2006 elections in the capital city of Kinshasa. With a long history of political strife, including two successive civil wars that claimed an estimated 3.5 million lives and left the country in ruin, the Democratic Republic of Congo finally held multiparty elections in 2006. Tillim’s depiction of this momentous event diverges from the tradition of classic photojournalism: instead of capturing heroic images of leaders or dramatic instances of violence, he presents subtle details that serve as metaphors for the chaotic and charged political atmosphere. While shooting at a political rally that drew thousands of people into the streets,  for example, Tillim records the rapture of the crowd, and a quiet sense of anticipation. This picture of Jean-Pierre Bemba, one of two leading presidential candidates out of a group of thirty-three, emphasizes the hulking form of Bemba’s back as he enters the stadium and a menacing glance from one of the bodyguards who flank him. Tomorrow I hope to further discuss the development of Tillim’s personal documentary style, and its relation to the tradition of photojournalism.

Lisa Sutcliffe, Assistant Curator, Photography, SFMOMA

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• One on One

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Face of Our Time, Guy Tillim, Lisa Sutcliffe

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