the Curse and the Gift

Henri Cartier-Bresson once famously said that, “to take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It’s a way of life.” In this age of iPhones and Android digital photography, where Instagram and Picasa allow for easy photo editing, with endless retouching and sharing options, the art photographer’s perspective has been sacrificed at the altar of instant gratification.

Photography is a way of life, and as we all become touch-screen photographers, emailing and Facebooking away, art photography takes on an entirely new meaning in its role in helping us to understand the way we live now. With our modern societies in flux, and many forms of cohesion in jeopardy, it helps to reflect on those changing human dynamics by looking at images that were composed calmly, away from the pressure of instant delivery. The three photographers I chose for this exhibition approach image-making in very different ways, but they share a nomadic sensibility that often translates into sharp social commentary. It comes out in the tones and undertones.

Claude Grunitzky