Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009
Photographers’ Gallery, London
NOW in its 13th year, the annual Deutsche Börse Photography Prize of £30,000 acknowledges the work of a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made a significant contribution, through either an exhibition or publication, to photography in Europe over the past year. There is little guidance on what constitutes a “significant contribution”, but the artists must show evidence of a consistent and strongly argued involvement with the medium.
Just as in any art form, there is a fascinating tussle between using photography to tell a story – be it social, political or humanist – or to demonstrate the versatility and possibilities of the medium. So it is here with the four selected artists. Paul Graham’s A Shimmer of Possibility, a series of images taken across America, capture the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of life in that vast country. One image, of the red-orange glow of the setting sun seen as behind a group of trees, celebrates the power of nature to transform an everyday scene into something memorable and poetic. Only a parked car disrupts the air of idyllic bliss. Other images are more understated and “ordinary” – not to say dull.
The notion of an idyll informs the work of Tod Papageorge for his collection – Passing Through Eden – of photographs of Manhattan’s Central Park. Recalling the way photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson “stalked” his subjects, waiting to catch the “decisive moment”, Papageorge pictures people relaxing and sunbathing in the huge park in the centre of New York. Couples sprawl on towels, a man plays chess, another sunbathes with a child – all evoke a sense of calm in a space that is often regarded as dangerous. The idyll may be as much a state of mind as a safe and protected place.
There is a distinct change of gear in the work of Emily Jacir and Taryn Simon, both of whom produce issue-based work. Jacir’s Material for a Film brings together the role of archivist, activist and photographer in an installation that documents the assassination of the Palestinian intellectual Waek Zuaiter by Israeli agents in Rome in 1972. The assassins thought he had played a role in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the summer Olympic Games of that year.
We are not invited to agree or disagree with the events, but to look at the carefully assembled evidence – such as letters and snapshots – to bring home the horror of cultures torn apart by war and displacement.
A similar sense of purpose informs the work of Taryn Simon. Entitled An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, Simon assumes the roles of informant and collector while compiling a photographic inventory of what lies concealed and inaccessible in the United States.
One image, which glows with sinister blue light, depicts nuclear waste submerged in a pool of water, its magnetic radiation set to last for many years. Another image is of the diverse range of confiscated objects taken from the baggage of people arriving in the country. Smuggled goods include quantities of eggs, maggot-invested African yams and bush meat.
What is so engaging about the work of Taryn Simon is that while it is part of the social and political documentary tradition, it also engages as photography in its own right with an agenda to provoke, inform and challenge in equal measure.
Emmanuel Cooper
The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2009 continues until April 12
