William Gedney was not a night photographer. He was an "immersion photographer", traveling to places he had never been, throwing himself into the culture, and absorbing a documenting it. However, he drove across the U.S. a few times and a had an interest in photographing street scenes at night. What interests me the most about Gedney is the fact that his images could have been shot in Worcester. He is relatively unknown; he photographed in the 60's and 70's and only gained posthumous recognition in the late 90's. His night photos are sort of a forgotten series, ignored in the face of his other work--and that's exactly what the subject matter is too. Scenes that you wouldn't look twice at because they are so commonplace, but scenes that you must look at carefully in order to see the depth and the genius. He manages to show the desolation, but also to inject a hint of presence and a bit of familiarity into them.
1 comment:
Yes, despite the effort to 'know' a place there is a familiarity to these images. I suppose that as viewers we need this to associate with the sites- otherwise they fall neatly into the 'foreign' category. But how can you show the specifics of a place that closely resembles other regions?
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