The Simply Footage exhibition celebrates cross-border images
A new exhibition entitled "Just Pictures" expresses the interest of the author, curator and critic Antwaun Sargent in young image makers who work between "the commercial and the conceptual, creating worlds that are their own".
The exhibition recently opened at Projects + Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri, and features works by eight visual artists chosen for their distinctive visions and the broad impact of their work: Mous Lamrabat, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Ruth Ossai, Renell Medrano, Joshua Kissi, Yagazie Emezi, Justin Solomon, and Joshua Woods.
Above: Yagazie Emezi, Lilith, 2020. Here: Joshua Woods, Black Power, 2019
The artists were selected by Sargent, author of the widely acclaimed photo book The New Black Vanguard, for the way their images "function in many different contexts, photographic and cultural," he said in a statement.
The exhibition reflects the growing wave of photographers who are not only redefining the relationship between photographer and subject, but also working at the intersection of contexts, subject areas and disciplines, creating a surge in hybrid photography that spans fashion to the visual arts extends to social documentary. Such images are found in a variety of home applications, often "widespread in museums and magazines, on social media, and on the walls of the home," as Sargent points out.
Mous Lamrabat, X-Rated, 2019
Just Pictures speaks for the diversity of images today, a quality that predates the internet and social media, but is undoubtedly enhanced by them. At its core, the exhibition expresses the way in which photographs simultaneously carry all sorts of meanings that we project onto them and no meaning at all.
“These images move quickly between contexts and take on new and often contradicting meanings that allow them to simultaneously act as racist representations and at the same time be discreet product shots, family documentaries, and glimpse of the latest fashion trends,” adds Sargent. "For this generation of aspiring picture-makers, the photographer's eye is unlimited: a picture is just a picture."
Joshua Kissi, When Children Play, 2019
Ruth Ossai, My Heart is Clean, Lagos Nigeria, 2018
Arielle Bobb-Willis, New Orleans, 2017
Justin Solomon, Things We Wear, 2019
Renell Medrano, Untitled, 2019
Just Pictures runs through November 21 at the Projects + Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri. projects-gallery.com