As an uneasily naturalised American, Barry Salzman responds to the US with something of an outsider’s regard. In his photographic series ‘The Other Side of Christmas’, he has turned his lens on the southern states of the US – which have some of the lowest household median incomes in the country – and the result is a Zen-like meditation on neglect and attrition.
Salzman lives between New York and Cape Town and his photographic series, which was shot during a road trip across Southern USA, offers a critique of the American Dream while exploring notions of identity and place. These concerns have become even more topical in the divisive Trump era and are particularly heightened over the festive season.
For South Africans coming to the show in Cape Town, this might entail the realisation that the grass is not always greener on the other side. “People are so quick to assume that life is better elsewhere,” says Salzman
Salzman is the recipient of the 2018 International Photographer of the Year award in the Deeper Perspective category of the International Photography Awards (IPA), for a project entitled The Day I Became Another Genocide Victim, which addresses the Rwandan genocide.
Barry Salzman – The Other Side of Christmas
between 7 November and 29 December 2019
The Deepest Darkest Gallery in Cape Town
20 Dixon St, De Waterkant, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa
https://www.deepestdarkestart.com/
