Katelyn Hannan
Professor Reddington
Exhibition Project
7 October 2019
Some of the artists featured in the “Immigrants exhibit” at the Soho Photo Gallery includes Diana Bejarano, Peter Tunely, Fransisco Uceda, Cathy Wilson, Ellen Jacob, F. Emmanuel Bastien, Pierre- Yves Linot and Sarah Corbin. The Soho Photo Gallery is an artist run gallery, that was founded by a group of New York Times photographers in 1971. Francisco Uceda is a Brooklyn-based fine art photographer, he works on trying to enhance and bring light to narratives of others.
The background of artists featured in the Soho art gallery, exhibition of Immigrants includes brilliant photographers, here I will go into depth of the backgrounds of the photography background. Peter N. Turnley is an American photojournalist who is most notable for journaling human condition and current events. Turnely is street photographer who has also lived in and photographed Paris since 1978. Francisco Uceda is a Brooklyn-based fine art photographer, whose work explores narratives of those who don't have the platform to themselves. Another Artist, Pierre-Yves Linot is a French-born New York-based photographer. His main passion is research about social justice and ways to bring more attention to it. He also had taken part in creating the “Immigrant Song” which was a project that reacted to the inhumanity of Trump's immigration policies. Sarah Coirbin one of the photographers first started out as a musician, printmaker, and painter than had developed into a fine art photographer. She resides in New York City, while also teaching photography in the Bronx. Cathy Wilson specializes in portrait and fine art photography. When Cathy Wilson's father died due to Alzheimer's disease., she made it part of her mission to give back. In her work she pledges to give 5% of her session fees back to Alzheimer 's. One of the other artist shown is Diana Bejarano. She is a photographer that has been living in New York to dive deeper in her photography, but has grown up in Columbia as a child. She uses photography as a medium to bring awareness to her home.
The photographs as a group in the "Immigrant" exhibit, features its internal context features it subject, form, style, and subject matter. The subject of the photos include their subjects immigrants, whether it is A family or one singly last person. The subject matter of the photo is give the immigrants a voice to say what they need to say. The style of the photos throughout the exhibit include many portraits and up close images of items. The form of the photos in the exhibit is how the immigrants in the photo are placed, some of the photos the subject matter is up close and takes up most of the picture, however in some photos the subject matter is mostly scenery and the immigrants are placed farther back. The external context of the photos in the immigrant exhibit have a background story that hold depth. It is taking the subject matter, which is usually in the shadows of its day to day life and is giving a better illustration of what their day to day life, which in the media seems to subjective them for the most part. Pierre-Yves Linot used up close images of items that were most important to the immigrants in the photo as the form of the photo, as his medium of the photos he uses objects taken from the immigrants. Cathy Wilson uses shapes and lines in her photo as her medium of her photos, in her photos in her part of the exhibit called “Lines Drawn” while the form of her photos usually takes up the whole composition of the photos. Ellen Jacob uses physical people in her photos of as the medium she uses a digital camera. In Sarah Corbin’s Work, her medium is to use her scanner as a camera, her form for the pieces is a landscape imagery that the composition is usually focused off centered, but put together her photographs using digital imaging.The presentation of the form and medium and the artist includes an in a closer look into the photos presented. Peter Turnely one of the photographers used mostly scenery as his form, while his medium was a digital camera.
The work of the artists included in the Immigrant exhibit all play a part in shedding light and giving recognition to those who are hidden in the shadows. Each artist also provides a different approach and adds a new layer to learning and evaluating the depth of the “Immigrants Exhibit”. Peter Turnely form of his photo evaluates the scenery in his photos. He also uses strong coloring in his photos that completely draw the audience in as a whole. Cathy Wilson uses shapes and lines in her photo as her subject matter in her photos in her part of the exhibit called “Lines Drawn”, which her photos include backgrounds of maps and a type of chicken wire covering the maps behind to symbolize the feeling of being caged in as a whole. This artist provokes strong feelings of resentment. Emmanuel F Bastien, gallery is called, “We Will Survive a new life of being an ISIS slave” used stories of children being held captive as an ISIS slaves, he chooses the styling of up close portraits to make the audience feel all the depth of that takes place in the photo and all the struggles they have to deal with in their day to day life. Alain Licari uses black and whit imagery in his gallery called “Me Dicen El Migrante”. The style of his photo usually contain landscape photos of scenery, one powerful image that held is one of a man holding on to the arm of a train struggling to get on. It is a powerful image to look at. Diana Berjano collection called letters from my exile, is a piece that uses letters from the exiles with heartfelt letters sharing feelings with the audience to hear their voices. Ellen Jacob, exhibition called “Us against the Wall”, her pieces go over immigrants that are now facing deportation. She states in her exhibition piece that “the faces of the undocumented are hidden, highlighting how invible they may be, the faces of the US citizens are shown, we have to build human connections if we are here to tear down the walls.” An example of her doing so is using photos of Alejandra, an immigrant, who tells her story of being born in Mexico, and then being brought to US as a child. Alejandra has always been trying as a young advocate for human rights. In results of being an advocate for human rights, she has participated in protesting, while doing that she was arrested, because it was viewed as being an excuse for deportation back from where she had come from. She is still looking for a pardon from the state of Arizona. When viewing, her image used in the exhibition it is a picture of Alejandra is writing something on a brick wall. My question to the photographer, is if we are trying to give light to immigrants whose faces in the shadow why is her face not shown, compared to the other images in her gallery.
Fransico Uceda part of the “Immigrants” exhibit had contained many portraits of immigrants, this was one of the pieces that have stood out to me the most. Fransico gives us us a closer view to just their bodies,their facial expressions, as well as an in depth view of the way they are dressed. The photographer uses a continuous bklack background to make the appearance of the people emphasized to the audience. In the photo,that I admired the most it was a picture of older women dressed in a floral dress. In her facial expressions, it is made clear that she is exhausted and just tired of all the hardships she has been put through. I chose this photograph because although it is so simple it holds so much depth. When you look at the photo first glance you notice that the woman holds similar body constructs as a usually elder women but as soon as you get to her face it makes you really wonder why she has been put through so much hurt and hardships. I think this part of the exhibit was essential to make the rest of the show maintain its fluidity. Many of the other photographs in the show are typically images of immigrants work scenery, their children set in beautiful scenery, as well as up close photos of items. This part of the exhibits gives off intense emotions and a deepened connection with the subjects. Fransico Uceda states that instead of trying to capture the subjects soul, he tries to capture their voice, as well as coming out of the shadows and being whole
In this exhibition, as soon as you walk in to Soho Photo Gallery a pair of headphones and a television is linked up. Jon Lowenstein speakis of Shadow Lives USA which is a ted talk that presents back up information on the gallery to give depth to photos. I found this approach different and something that had intrigued me because of the exhibits ability to promote different mediums of art to bring more attention to the topic, before you were able to go and view the photos observe the photos in the gallery, adding this allows us to feel the depth a much needed conversation within the media. Throughout the gallery, I have made some personal associations with the photographers work. One piece of art that comes to mind is Sarah Corbins. She uses digitally combined landscapes with some of her market finds to create a fictional composition. However still identifying with the topic of immigrants. She connects her pieces with the Ellis Island Hospital to stimulate the souls that once used to be there. I have always had a fascination with spirits and these photos that she creates just brings that alive for me, but for those who don't have the same interest as I do it brings that alive for them. The artist, in this part of the exhibit brings alive the liberation and excitement of all the immigrants coming from Ellis Island with such an open mind, as well as them being celebrated. Yet, today immigrants are portrayed in such a negative way. This gallery was not only able to translate all the different layers of the physical meaning of being an immigrant rather than just subjective them, the way the media does. I thought it was interesting that even though the bulk of the media presented in the gallery was photography, that they had post it notes of some of the words said by those who were hurt, as well as showing us through film the background. I would definitely see these artists again, because of the education I was able to gain from the topics through photos. I also got to see how one topic can be presented in so many ways with also sharing so many stories to those who are viewing this gallery.
Works Cited
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