As the International Center of Photography, in New York, presents Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change, The Eye of Photography spoke with Carol Squiers, one of the curators of the exhibition and longtime staff member at the institution.
What is the purpose of this show? Why did you think about this theme?
The purpose of the exhibition is to look at the new digital methods of image production, display, and distribution, which have largely displaced older forms of photographic practice. As a museum of photography and visual culture, we must find ways of exhibiting and discussing the photography, video, and other pictorial content that is on the Web. This show is one way of doing that.
Could you summarize each of the six issues highlighted in this show and their concern for our society?
Climate Changes presents work that is circulating online that aims to inform, educate and ultimately engage viewers about the looming reality of global climate change. Some of the work is made by science organizations, translating scientific data into visual form; other pieces are documentary and have been distributed widely as proof of need for sustained oversight of the oil and gas industry; and lastly there is work by artists about the need for climate action.
The mass migration of refugees to Europe in recent years has created an unprecedented visual record whose meaning is shaped by the agendas of the beholders. The Flood: Refugees and Representation considers images of refugees as they circulate on our digital networks, and the relationship of those images to pity, fear, and politics.
Queer communities have long known that binary definitions of “male” and “female” don’t reflect all lived experiences of gender. They have developed those understandings over several decades of discussion and image-posting on various Web platforms, from early chat rooms to MySpace, Instagram, and Facebook. In “The Fluidity of Gender” we feature a small sample of the photography and video that these communities continue to produce.
The “Black Lives (Have Always) Mattered” sections contains images that feature the Black body as a catalyst for social, cultural, and political change. This section uses media from the Internet as well as famous historical photographs and studio and vernacular portraits from the International Center of Photography’s collections to reaffirm the concept that Black liberation movements are part of a continuum.
The name of the Islamic State is seared into collective memory on a global scale for its acts of exorbitant violence, which is portrayed in its photographic and video propaganda. But it also strives to create its vision of an extremist Islamic society, which it also promotes on social media platforms along with its terror. The section called “Propaganda and the Islamic State” presents ISIS’s “positive” propaganda and shows how it has tried to build an extremist utopian society within a context of spectacular violence.
During the 2016 presidential election, a group of Internet bloggers and personalities espousing extremist right-wing views began receiving significant media attention, although it was little understood by the public. This section looks at the right-wing fringe, sometimes known as the “alt-right,” and the images and words they posted about the presidential candidates during the recent election.
Why did you choose the highlighted six issues over other possible ones?
These topics were the most important for us in 2015 when we began seriously thinking about the show.
Do you think the impact on social change and human conscience of today’s “new digital methods of image production” is more important than half a century ago when information and images were produced and distributed at a different speed?
Yes. Gender queer people have been able to safely communicate with one another in chat rooms, blogs, and social media platforms on the Web in ways that didn’t exist before. Black lives matter grew as a movement because people could make videos of police officers actually killing people and then distribute them on social media.
In revolution, one could read evolution. Do you see evolution in what this show calls a “perpetual revolution”?
Evolution is a continuing revolution, which is what digital technology is producing.
Moving images have a great importance in this show, drawing maybe more attention than still images. What do you have to comment on the “new” visual orientations at ICP?
ICP has long shown video and other kinds of moving images, especially in our Triennials, which began in 2003. The difference in this show is that there is more video than there has been before.
Are videos such as the ISIS propaganda ones, the #blacklivesmatter section ones, or the James Balog one, pieces of art? Why?
ISIS videos are not art—the section is called “Propaganda and the Islamic State.” Propaganda is not art, but it is often effective visual communication.
Most of the large pieces in “Black Lives (Have Always) Mattered” are made by artists; most of the still photographs from ICP’s collection are not technically art—many of the images are news photos and documentary photos, which ICP has long exhibited. Sheila Pree Bright is an artist who used a range of images, including news images, to create her video. The large multi-screen video piece, “thewayblackmachine, “2014, is by an artists’ collective called HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN? and is created from a wide range of images, including news reportage.
James Balog’s piece is a socially and politically motivated document of the Arctic. This clip is from a film of the largest recorded calving iceberg, which puts the footage in context: faster Arctic glacier receding is coinciding with larger glacier chunks breaking and melting. Some of the footage has been edited (slowed down, voice over, image overlay) to highlight the power and scale of what the camera is witnessing.
How many pieces of videos were included in the show? And how many photographs?
Approximately 62 videos; 80 or so photographs and 15 other objects (magazine covers, etc).
How would you define the difference of impact of moving images over still images?
It depends on the individual. Moving images can tell a longer, more explicit story than still images can tell.
What are the “ever-expanding possibilities offered by this revolution”?
They are infinite—I can’t say where a revolution is going.
What thoughts should or could a visitor of this show leave with?
There are a multitude of thoughts a visitor could have—I wouldn’t want to try to tell people what to think. Among the conclusions I reached as a result of doing the exhibition is that photography on the Web must be considered with the same degree of seriousness as more traditional forms of photography that originally appeared only as photographic prints or as reproductions in books, newspapers, and magazines.
Interview by Jonas Cuénin
Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change
January 27 to May 7, 2017
International Center of Photography
250 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
USA
