Exposición de fotografía. Lewis Baltz. Fundación Mapfre. Bárbara de Braganza
La exposición
Lewis Baltz (Newport Beach, California, 1945- París, 2014) es uno de los fotógrafos más importantes de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Su obra se ha relacionado tradicionalmente con la generación de fotógrafos agrupados en torno a la exposición New Topographics,
que cuestionó la idea del paisaje como una imagen bella y existencial,
casi sagrada, y lo mostró como un hecho real, como resultado de la casi
siempre desafortunada acción del hombre.
Bien, leido esto, reconozco que desconcía este movimiento o generación de fotógrafos que se agruparon bajo ese término. New Topographics.
Una pequeña búsqueda en internet nos lleva, por ejemplo, a una exposición con el mismo nombre en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao.
........En 1975 la George Eastman House de Nueva York –institución internacionalmente conocida por sus importantes archivos de fotografía y cine– organizó la exposición New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape (Nuevas Topografías: Fotografías de paisajes alterados por el hombre). Comisariada por William Jenkins, conservador adjunto de fotografía del siglo XX, la exposición presentó 168 obras de diez artistas: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd y Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore y Henry Wessel, Jr. Desde entonces, sus imágenes han permanecido vinculadas a un cambio trascendental en el modo de percibir el paisaje como tema fotográfico, pero también como cuestión social y cultural......
Sobre su obra el NYT comentaba
..........Their work was united by a seemingly dispassionate, affectless presentation — the critic Ken Johnson, writing in The New York Times, once compared it to pictures taken by an insurance adjuster — of the rapid transformation wrought across the countryside in the 1960s and ’70s by suburban development, strip malls, highways and motels..............
Pues bien, ahora un breve comentario personal de esta exposición de fotos.
Son unas fotos que, más que frías, se pueden denominar como gélidas cuando son vistas en series temáticas completas como es el presente caso.
Pocas veces me he sentido alejado tanto del fotógrafo, de su tema, de su manera de presentarlo.
Quizás el ambiente cultural. la temática tan agradable de "como somos en USA" a los americanos, unida a ser series temáticas completas más que fotos, es lejana a mi manera de ver como espectador la fotografía.
Dicho esto, opinión personal, de destacar algunas fotos serían sus paisajes nocturnos.
En ( google translate)
Mapfre Foundation
The exhibition
Lewis Baltz (Newport Beach, California, 1945- Paris, 2014) is one of the most important photographers of the second half of the 20th century. His work has traditionally been associated with the generation of photographers grouped around the New Topographics exhibition, which questioned the idea of the landscape as a beautiful and existential, almost sacred image, and showed it as a real fact, as a result of the almost always Unfortunate action of man.
Well, read this, I recognize that this movement or generation of photographers who grouped under that term was disconcerted. New Topographics.
A small internet search leads, for example, to an exhibition of the same name in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao.
In 1975 the George Eastman House of New York ?? institution internationally known by its important archives of photography and cinema ?? Organized the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape (New Topographies: Photographs of landscapes altered by man). Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel, curated by William Jenkins, adjunct curator of 20th century photography, , Jr. Since then, his images have been linked to a transcendental change in the way he perceives the landscape as a photographic theme, but also as a social and cultural issue.
About his work, the NYT commented
.......... Their work was united by a seemingly dispassionate, affectless presentation - the criticism Ken Johnson, writing in The New York Times, eleven compared to pictures taken by an insurance adjuster - of the rapid transformation wrought Across the countryside in the 1960s and '70s by suburban development, strip malls, highways and motels ..............
Well, now a brief personal comment on this exhibition of photos.
They are photos that, more than cold, can be denominated like icy when they are seen in complete thematic series as is the present case.
I have seldom felt so remote from the photographer, his subject, his way of presenting it.
Maybe the cultural atmosphere. The pleasant subject of "as we are in the USA" to the Americans, coupled with being complete thematic series rather than photos, is far from my view of photography as a spectator.
That said, personal opinion, highlight some photos would be their night scenery.