The Fraenkel Gallery at 49 Geary in San Francisco is currently showing the photographs of Richard Avedon for the Performance exhibit. I'm sure most of you have already heard of him. But I went last week and really loved the work in person. He is known for his reinvention of portraiture and the idea of 'performance' was one of his main concerns. It was really nice for me again to see the way that photographs can be displayed. The lighting and framing was beautiful and although I couldn't find an image online to post there was a large photograph up of a bare foot on toe (obviously a dancer). Its an amazing photograph, it shows every callous, line, wrinkle and hair of the dancers foot while the position looks effortless and painless the physical markers say another. I think this is a really interesting shot.
Many things that people do or perform often appear effortless and painless. Most of the time though, thats not the case. There is a degree of pain and struggle to everything. Beautiful and fun things many times carry the burden beneath the surface or the danger where it can remain secret. Dancers, actors, etc.. just people.. we perform our best as much as possible and hide the hardships underneath as much as possible.
If anyone gets a chance, its worth it to go to the gallery. But beware of the lady who sits in the lobby of the building, she is such a troll!
No comments:
Post a Comment