New Photography 2009: A Bold and Innovative Future

If you haven’t viewed the New Photography 2009 exhibit recently opened at The Museum of Modern Art, rush to Midtown West for a visit. Since 1985, MoMA sets an annual display of cutting-edge photographers—70 artists from 15 countries thus far.

This year, the chosen six are all American—albeit from vastly different backgrounds. Upbringing plays a key role in their visual aesthetic. Leslie Hewitt, for instance, highlights her African-American heritage in the series, Untitled (Epiphany of Circumstances).

Hewitt negates traditional perspective by hanging scenery upside down; in three panels, only an old family photograph is right-side-up and distinguishable to the eye. In the final two panels, the addition of a mirror and a photo on its side leave the viewer disoriented and intrigued.

Daniel Gordon’s style is even more unusual. His montages are both grotesque and alluring; they simultaneously compel and repel the spectator. Gordon combines paper and online photos into body images that challenge conventional standards of beauty.

Gordon’s techniques are definitely new! He photographs his initial collage, rearranges the pieces, and re-photographs. His methodology and the discomfort it elicits are reminiscent of performance art. Gordon’s creations resonate with a powerful message.

I am equally moved by Sarah VanDerBeek’s pictures of “temporary sculptures”. Composition for Detroit salutes a disappearing manufacturing economy, and incorporates photos from the 1967 riots. That which is old is new again. Her moody style and use of space are evocative of Robert Rauschenberg and Hans Hoffman.

Sterling Ruby, Carter Mull, Walead Beshty examine photography in the digital age. Ruby starts with graffiti snapshots, and manipulates the defacement into biting social commentary.

Mull begins with a page of the Los Angeles Times. He alters and re-photographs layer upon layer, until the sheet is unrecognizable. Mull questions whether photography, like print, will be obliterated by technology.

Beshty goes further, suggesting that conventional photography is already obsolete. Beshty works in total darkness, exposing photography paper to different color light, thereby creating random patterns. Is this the only remaining use for standard chemical processes?

These artists awaken my own creativity, as I ponder how to move my process forward—into photography’s bold and innovative future!