Friday, October 29, 2010

Messing with the Real: WassinkLundgren

Another way of intervening in photographs of the real is to invoke performance in an otherwise 'natural' setting - in other words, to create an event for the camera which is, in its own way, real.

These photographs come from an ingenious body of work by a Dutch photographer who goes by the name of WassinkLundgren, called Empty Bottles. Working in China, the artist placed empty plastic bottles on the street, set up his large format camera and waited for the bottles to be picked up by passing scavengers:

WassinkLundgren, from Empty Bottles

WassinkLundgren, from Empty Bottles

WassinkLundgren, from Empty Bottles

The photographs speak not only to economic and social concerns, but also to wider photographic practice. Are these straight photographs? Were they made ethically? Does that matter?

WassinkLundgren has a mad website, which you absolutely must check out here.

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