Press Release - Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind The Camera

Hey. Two images from 'Photobooth' will be shown in this exhibition, which opens tomorrow at Joy Wai Gallery in New York. They are framed archival C-Prints, the only prints made of this work thus far, and are available for purchase. To view the work in this private preview please make contact with the gallery. All details are below. Hit this link to the gallery's event page or click the image below to enlarge.

-Rodell





From Joy Wai Gallery:

Whose self-portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera


For our exhibition, we are honored to showcase the works of nineteen talented, international photographers selected through an open call.


The overwhelming frontier of new technology demands a constant and deep reflection on the status of the image, especially the codes that are embedded in the medium of photography. Though the process of recording light, through film or sensor, has basically remained consistent from its inception, creating pictures is now a more complex affair. Photography involves techniques and ideas drawn from many fields, such as architecture, cinematography, fashion, design, and craft. There is a cross-pollination occurring where photography becomes the deposit site for ideas that are in constant flux and collision.


Because of the proliferation of new possibilities, the interaction with the image has changed. The genre of self-portraiture allows a particularly deep introspection into the changing nature between the subject/object and production of imagery. The collection of work showcased in this exhibition draws upon former codes of beauty; there is a suggested lack of self-consciousness and an avid attention paid to the surface of the photograph. Though self-portraiture is referential, we observe here an ambiguity now prevalent in its vocabulary. The traditional codes of photography are here revised and enriched by digitalization, abstraction, tableau, and appropriation. Composition, framing and light are employed to reveal a part of the artists’ persona. The two selves are hence involved on stage, the performer and the creator.


This microcosmic atlas of self gives a glimpse of the possibility of the image to utilize an active voice to engage in dialogue with the viewer. Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera presents a panorama of artists who intimately explore themselves and their relationship to the medium.