“Fleeting Encounters” on Manuel Vazquez’s photographic series, the Lonely Crowd.
June 22nd, 2010 by dmb media
Fleeting Encounters
On Manuel Vazquez’s photographic series Lonely Crowd
It is very interesting to witness a resurgence of portraiture in contemporary photography. A new generation of art photographers is questioning the means and implications of photographic representation, especially dealing with urban culture and identity. Lonely crowd by Manuel Vazquez is an evident example of this scrutinous attitude, raising questions about memory, digital technology, and the ephemeral essence of urban encounters.
The first thing one notices when approaching the images is their uncommon graphic appearance. From a short distance they give the impression of being taken from surveillance screens. The unmistakable digital “grain”, a composite arrangement of diodes or pixels, reminds one of a certain type of imagery more akin to television and video, than to cinema and photography. Digital images on a screen are not meant for contemplation. They are transitory, fleeting, a continuously shifting array of electrical impulses. So are Vazquez’s encounters, a brief flash of light in the midst of a black void.
Vazquez’s images are true to a tradition of street portraiture. There is no previous understanding with the people he photographs, no warning, no pose. In this series Vazquez is able to capture an image of ongoing action, his sitters abstracted on their own thoughts and stories, oblivious of the photographer. One can think of Phillip Lorca Di Corcias’ Heads as a mayor influence in Vazquez’s series, or even trace connections with modern American street photographers like Lee Friedlander or Garry Winogrand. The subjects are caught in the whirlwind of transit -on the move from one place to another- and it is in this respect that Lonely Crowd comments on life in the city by portraying the isolation of its inhabitants.
The way Vazquez renders the images is also relevant, and makes one think of the nature of visual memory in the digital era. The portraits lack the pristine detail one has come to expect from photography, but deliver a stronger, bolder typological image, rather than a specific narrative. Such are the kind of images one tends to keep for a moment and then forget. The semblance of a woman walking past us on the street, the man seating in front of us in the underground, the people standing around us waiting to cross the street. Our visual memory catches brief glimpses of the people we see every day, only to forget them, bound to be lost in a continuously changing flow of faces and fleeting encounters.
In Lonely Crowd, Vasquez aims to set the ephemeral impressions of urban life -the intrusive images of the surveillance cameras and CCTV- in a contemplative space. Through a shift of scale and a conscious play with the texture of the screen, he makes us aware of the inherent physicality of digital images, drawing us closer to them, and in some respect, closer to the strangers portrayed. In this series, Vazquez allows one to take the time to appreciate the nuances of digital representation, and to consider how such medium is related to urban culture, individuals and their identity.
More from R.Orrantia here
22/06/2010
No comments yet