This exhibition is a lot to do with human aspirations. Not everybody can be rich or wants to be. But wherever we fit on the socio-economic scale, our character is shaped by our life experience and our imagination. Kirk Crippens knows this and it is reflected in his approach to environmental portraiture.
Kirk Crippens’ people live in the wealthy US city of Portland, Oregon, which prides itself on promoting individualism. Crippens’ investigation, ‘Portraitlandia,’ was made in response to a popular television comedy series, ‘Portlandia’, which satirises the city of 600,000 as a hub of liberal politics and alternative lifestyles. His mix of imaginative characters suggests a high level of personal reinvention and tends to confirm Portland as a consumerist paradise.
The photographer, like the US philosopher Henry David Thoreau, perceives difference and nonconformity as an expression of people being true to themselves. No matter what adversity he may have encountered in his lifetime, the people in these photographs are confident enough to let the photographer enter their homes or personal spaces to reveal as much as the eye can see.
John B. Turner
Te Atatu Me: photographs of an urban New Zealand village
John B Turner
Texte de Grant Cole
Publié par Turner PhotoBooks and PhotoForum avec l’assistance de Creative New Zealand.
176 p couverture cartonnée
$NZ 60.00. www.rimbooks.com.
