Late last year, when I was in the middle of my two-week long visit to Los Angeles, I accidentally came across one picture by the american photographer Adam Bartos. The scenery in that single shot seemed strangely familiar, so I got curious and found out that in his other images I could recognize not only the places where I was temporarily staying, but also the new style that I adopted for my own street photography in that city. I felt the connection with his approach and vision, as if 35 years later I was doing the same thing as he did - walking and shooting around the city that seemed very unreal and mythic, which felt to me like merely a set for a video game. Or, as Bartos puts it,“...I had a romance going with LA from film, photography, and television, and the place felt, as it still does to me, unreal in a familiar way. My photographs were attempts to locate myself in the actual time and place, by looking at what was typical but might, or might not, reference the mythic LA in the most oblique manner possible”.
Influenced by the photographers like Cartier-Bresson, William Eggleston and working in the same vein as Stephen Shore, Bartos’ interpretation of LA and Paris is very personal, as he enters these places with calm eyes of the external observer yet exploring them deeper than native dwellers probably would. His work oozes serenity and evens out the chaos of these big neurotic cities. Every image seems to be a window into a parallel frozen world, where things exist on their own, uninterrupted by neither people nor movement.
Your comment about the non-movement in Bartos' imagery is interesting. I'm not sure I would completely agree with this statement. Yes it is a still photograph, however the dynamic lighting and angular composition offer a sense of the movement of the city. Although this is probably open to the interpretation of the viewer.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Photography is always subjective, and often you get a different impression from the same shot if you look at it a week, a month or a year later...that's a beautiful thing how perception changes over time.
DeleteMaybe I based my initial observations on his other shots where everything seemed quite still not dynamic at all, which gave me the feeling of comfort, I guess.
Yes, I am fascinated by how past associations can influence the viewing of photographic work. Even just the comparison of the photographer's past work to his new work can influence the impact the work has. I think this is something photographic practitioners should consider in their work in order to elicit the response they desire from the viewer.
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