Friday, March 6, 2009

Week In Review...

No breaking news here, but there have been some interesting things around... First, must comment that I still find it pretty amazing that with all the hundreds of people who previously had their say on Ryan McGinley's style, talent, lighting, marketing, you name it, only two people made any mention of the 800lb gorilla in the room- his all white world view! Tell ya something???

Elsewhere of note in blogdom (via Colin Pantall, and Jim Johnson) there's this thought provoking series of night time prison landscapes by Stephen Tourlentes, particularly relevant in a time when judges have been caught sentencing juveniles to private adult prisons in exchange for bribes. The prison industrial complex in this country is way the fuck out of control- people debating whether to put preteens in adult jails, adults being sentenced for years on end for simple marijuana possession, prisoners who can't vote but are counted as residents of their "host" community to increase the town's state and federal revenues. Is it any wonder the US leads the world in incarceration... including that of children! Jeff Brouws photograph of graffiti at the Dystopia group exhibit at The Robert Koch Gallery pretty much sums it all up!




Then there's Ian Teh's mesmerizingly beautiful landscape essay in Deep Sleep Magazine caught over at Exposure Compensation.


Finally (as in last and certainly not least), a heart felt shout out to Benjamin Chesterton at DuckRabbit for extending "concerned" photography into the digital age with his brilliant audio slide shows, and more so-- for actively advocating for the empowerment of individuals who are the usual subjects of this genre to become some of its primary documentarians. If I had a MacArthur Grant to give...

(c) Yasuyoshi Chiba

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