This portfolio deviates from documentary “truth.” Rather, its images portray a silent theatre with a fictional presentation of urban symbols and archetypes. For instance, the archetype of walls may mean confinement, liberation, or both. Walls evoke a world that may be either structured or chaotic.
Thus, a village may provide a womb-like set of closed walls that allows life. The manger scene is a spiritual space that contains the Mother archetype. The walls form buildings that contain rooms and are cut by windows and doors that allow entry and escape. The spaces are occupied by human figures with defined roles (psychological walls), such as priest, washer woman, fisherman. Conversely, as described in Kafka’s "The Castle," a village may have ambiguous borders and alleys that lead to confusion and alienation. This entraps and dehumanizes its inhabitants, revealing a “labyrinth of the mind.”
The portrayal of people may be approached from different perspectives. August Sander (Citizens of the 20th Century) hoped to use photography as a universal language that reflects a path to demonstrable “truth.” He divided humanity into seven distinct types presented unaltered in their typical surroundings. On the other hand, Richard Avedon (In the American West) openly stated that his depiction of humanity involved overt manipulation, and he obliterated the surroundings by placing his subjects against a white backdrop.
Unlike Sander and Avedon, I avoid any pretense of capturing “truth” via portraiture in my depiction of Street Life. I chose hyper-intense coloration of the surroundings to emphasize a psychological drama rather than the stereotypical subjects portrayed.
