Closer: a Group Exhibition of Portrait Photography

In the era of the popularization of imaging technology, we are all photographers, and at the same time, we are the objects being photographed. The situation was especially worse during the global pandemic that experienced social distancing, quarantine, and alienation. Regarding distance, Robert Carpa has a sentence: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you didn’t get close enough.” However, this standard of measuring "nearness" by "enough/not enough"-is for physical space state, as well as relationship dynamics, and intuitive calling of emotional state.

Some portrait works show an intimate relationship between the photographer and the subject, how to shorten the physical and emotional distance between the two parties. In Nobuyoshi Araki’s Sentimental / Winter Journey (1970-1990), love and death undergo a gentle transformation. This iconic series began in 1970 on the honeymoon of the photographer and his wife.

The distance of the stage feeling in the image is often interpreted by the subject and activated by the photographer to transform it into a narrative, propaganda, and even political image. Daido Moriyama is known for the diversity of shooting themes, and its unique coarse-grained, rugged, and unmodified photography style. His first photo album " Photo Theater" (1968) recorded the faces of a group of touring theater troupes. Later, his camera lens was transferred to women, photographing their "watching" erotic feelings in different spaces and atmospheres. At the same time as Moriyama, the late Yau Leung captured the alluring charm of Hong Kong in the sixth and seventh major eras.
・・・
@blindspotgallery
français fr