The art of photography has produced some of history’s most iconic and outstanding artworks. Here are some of the photographic highlights at Art Dubai 2010.
In German photographer Elgar Esser’s work, the ruins of Baalbek stand proud and lonely, supremely dignified in their stillness. As the eye wanders over the image, it suddenly notices two human figures, impossibly small, wandering down the gravelly slopes of a crumbled wall. Who are they? What are they doing? The question remains unanswered but the eye remains on the delicately colored columns and stones, set amongst a seeming sunset sky at Galerie Sfeir-Semler (B10).
“The Esser pieces show Baalbek and Sidon in Lebanon, says Andrée Sfeir-Semler, “the
Baalbek piece is brand new and has been produced for Dubai and is based on an old hand-colored postcard. Other photographic works that stand out at the gallery include those by Lebanese cutting-edge artist Akram Zaatari. Shebaa, at 180 x 221 cm, is part of a large-scale series of landscapes the artist has been producing. “The Shebaa farms are right on the border with Israel, explains Sfeir-Semler, “they look beautiful and harmless but are a very important area politically.
“These pieces are part of a project called Nature Morte, divided into ‘chapters’ and this work is the ‘chapter’ on the border between Lebanon and Israel.
At Dubai’s The Third Line (A28), works by Egyptian photographer Youssef Nabil showcase faces of Yemeni sailors living in the UK. Known for his glamorous hand-colored portraits of celebrities and friends, as well as poignant self-portraits, Nabil uses the wizened faces of these old sailors to tell the stories of the hard-working immigrants of South Shields better than any book could. Similarly, so too the works of Lebanese Fouad Elkoury explore various social issues, as in Boy from Turkey, dealing with immigrants of Kurdish origin in Germany. Creator of the Arab Image Foundation, Elkoury’s covered the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982, and has been producing socially probing works throughout his prolific career.
At Almine Rech Gallery (A6), the works of fellow Lebanese photographer Ziad Antar explore buildings in Beirut that have had construction halted due to the war. Works such as After Eight are part of an artistic practice built on Antar’s childhood in the south of Lebanon during the civil war and his observation of daily events. “I like [these] photos of Beirut, says Almine Rech-Picasso, “he shows [his time there] in an optimistic way with a radical and interesting aesthetic that refers to Minimalism.
Lebanese Nadim Asfar, at Galerie Tanit (B25), investigates the relationship between cinema and photography and its subsequent language of images. In works such as To Photograph, Asfar finds a sense of poetry in the act of photography, the reproduction and profusion of images almost meditative. “He develops techniques and aesthetics that examine matters of point of view, as well as the presence of the artist in his artistic process, and his relationship to his photographed subjects, explains the gallerist.
At Galeria Filomena Soares, (A33), photographs by Iranian Shirin Neshat, from her Rapture series, sit alongside Bilbao by Allan Sekula. An American artist of Polish descent, Pennsylvania-born Sekula has spent the last three decades creating photographs, books and films, as well as producing critical essays and texts, most prominently on late capitalism.
The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Getty Research Institute amongst others, Sekula has also photographed the Guggenheim Bilbao from previously unseen angles, providing fresh perspectives on the structure and its surroundings.
The works of Egyptian Hassan Khan at Galerie Chantal Crousel (A37) are also probing in their own way, taken on the artist’s iPhone during walks in Cairo. “He has regularly captured ‘banal’ moments that struck him, explains Chantal Crousel, of the series Lust. “The result is a series of subtle, poetic images that reveal the potential beauty and poetry contained in everyday life – provided one is in a certain state of grace. The images have a slightly fuzzy aesthetic to them, partially from the mode of camera used, and partially reflective of the slightly dream-like state they At Oman’s Bait Muzna Gallery (B26), the works of Omani Hassan Meer carry their own dreamy element. “We are presenting three of his latest photographic works from the Moon series, explains the gallery’s Ellen Molliet. “The first pieces of this series were recently purchased by François Pinault as well as other Middle Eastern collectors. Showing almost sepia-colored images with evidence of text scribbled over them, in a nod to works by other Middle Eastern photographers such as Lalla Essaydi or even Neshat, the works have a strange, distant quality to them, at once poetic and translucent.
From ancient experiments with pinhole cameras and the camera obscura to the discovery of chemical photography in the 1820s, mankind has used the art of photography to capture surroundings in previously unimaginable detail and accuracy. Since its appearance as an art form in itself in the early 1900s, photography has developed in leaps and strides, rivaling traditional modes of portraiture in ever-innovative forms, from heliogravures to digital prints and even mobile phone shots – and the works here are evidence of just how varied and ever-innovative this art form is.
This article is published in the Canvas Daily which reports on the activities of Art Dubai, March 17-20. A digital version is available at www.canvasonline.com.
