Photo exhibition - Beauty, Sorrow of the American West

<p>I think these photos are beautiful, and I especially enjoyed many of the portraits which are a very enjoyable combination of candid and portraiture. However, this feels like a "message" exhibition focusing on negative aspects of western development without much in the way of balance. It's likely that the photographer wants to make me feel uncomfortable about the lives and places of people in the west, and if so he has succeeded. But because I have spent a lot of time in these areas I don't agree with the notion that this is what its like there, and how most people live in that environment. Interesting, beautiful photography but not a balanced message is my take.</p>

<p><a href="http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/26/beauty-sorrow-of-american-west/?hpt=hp_c3">http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/26/beauty-sorrow-of-american-west/?hpt=hp_c3</a></p>

<p> </p>

<p>I agree, David, there's a definite agenda there. But, I don't think the intent was to deceive as much as to echo the work of the Farm Service Agency photographers who documented the Depression in the 1930s:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_14.html">http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_14.html</a></p>

<p>I'm curious, though, about why he would include a photo of a dry creekbed near Tombstone, AZ. Most of the creekbeds in Arizona are dry, except during the monsoon season in late summer. It's not an element of either beauty or sorrow, just the way mama nature runs things there...</p>

<p>I've worked or travelled through some of the areas (AZ, NV) in the photos and I don't have a problem with his "message" about the places, it's his photography and he's presenting what he saw. I spent 5 years in the desert regions of AZ and you do run across places and people like the images. There's nothing pretty about some of the places, it's just people living as best they can.</p>

<p>As for the creeks in AZ, not all are dry, just those in some areas and most of the rest are only dry in reaches where there may be flow in other reaches. It's the nature of the subsurface geology. In addition, you can dig down into the bed and often find water as there is flow in the bed but not on the surface. And yes, I spent the 5 years streamgaging with the USGS.</p>

<p>It is both accurate and unbalanced from what I have seen ... There is nothing showing the affluence and poverty current in the States, just the poverty ...yet within the pictures are the same range of people who with age have been worn down by their hard existance similar to what I saw when I went to countless 21st birthdays and other social occasions back in the fifties with the grandparents who had survived the depression years and the youngsters who were benefiting from the Welfare State that predominated in NZ then. Though in these photos I thought I detected the despair and hopelessness of many youth in the current ecconomic climate.</p>

<p><em>It's likely that the photographer wants to make me feel uncomfortable about the lives and places of people in the west, and if so he has succeeded.</em><br>

Not sure about the photographer's intention. The title and overall tone was presumably created by CNN (that CNN has an agenda is pretty clear anyway). Here's what the "story" says, and note that his exhibition title doesn't mention anything about sorrow:<br>

He [the photographer Bryan Schutmaat] said he hopes to reveal some of the personal stories of his subjects but doesn’t believe there’s a great message behind his images.<br>

“Photography, even when made in documentary mode like my work, can be and most often is a form of fiction, in my view,” he said.<br>

He said he’s hesitant to claim his photos reveal anything about the West or its people because, like any art form, photography relies on the interpretation of the viewer.<br>

“I don't want to make a big statement," Schutmaat said. “I just want to help people look at the world.”<br>

Shutmaat’s project, titled “Grays the Mountain Sends,” will be <a href="http://hartfordphotomfa2012.com/" target="_blank">on exhibition in New York</a> starting November 1.</p>

<p><<<without much in the way of balance>>></p>

<p>David, IMO, it's up to a viewer, not a photographer, to seek balance, unless the photographer is claiming to show a balanced view. A viewer might want to look at different sources to get a balanced view of almost anything presented by anyone. Many photographers photograph from their own perspective, they photograph their own passions, and are not seeking an objective or universal view.</p>

<p>I photograph a particular part of gay life, with which I am most intimate and to which I am most drawn and about which I am most curious. I feel no obligation to show other aspects of gay life or aspects of straight life. Not that I am opposed to that or won't someday explore further.</p>

<p>If someone were to document homelessness, for example, should they also include pictures of the affluent by way of fairness? I don't see why, though they certainly could and might want to.</p>

<p>Sometimes, what we exclude is very telling. Sometimes, it's not telling at all. It just means it wasn't in our sights for any number of reasons.</p>

<p>Fred - I understand your point, which is why hopefully my point had a "just saying" tone. You are right that a photographer has every right to show their point of view, and its up to the viewer to decide if they like it, and if they agree with it. In fact I like Schutmaat's photographs, and would gladly go see this exhibition. On the other hand, as a viewer I'm not in agreement with this as the only valid viewpoint for this subject matter. I recognize that even asking for "balance" will only end up representing what I see to be a balanced view, not necessarily what the photographer would think was balanced. </p>

<p>Since I made the post I've thought about the so-what nature of my perspective. I guess for me that's whether my photography of the same area is truly representative, or if my focus on the beauty and light fairly represents a picture of what its like there. I remembered that I have a favorite series that I shot in 2006 of the Four Corners area, with some not-so-pretty views of how some of the people there live amongst what I consider to be great natural beauty, in less than pristine living conditions. So maybe I've tried to present a similar view, but I think my perspective is the contrast between nature and how humans have adapted (to?) it, and I think the Schutmaat's photographs tend to downplay the beauty of the west in favor the darker side for those living there. So as you and I have discussed before if the point of art is to get us thinking then Mr. Schutmaat succeeded.</p>

<p>Only photographs of men. Odd.</p>

<p>The people all look so sad. so forlorn. I can't believe they never laugh. Or have no joy. </p>