By: Catherine Pearson
The photographs on display at Dumbo's Farmani Gallery have traveled considerable distances to get to their current home. They've come from Isreal, Paris, and Italy, all be the way of Arles, France, where these "chouchou" or chosen ones were deemed judges' favorites during week one of the 2008 Les Rencontres D'Arles photo festival.
Hundreds of photographers submitted their work for consideration as part of the so-called “photo folio review.” In turn, their portfolios were critiqued by a panel of some ninety connoisseurs, drawn from an international pool of publishers, gallery owners, and curators. At week's end six artists—Guillaume Amat, Harry Bowers, Margherita Crocco, Eva Frapiccini, Lucia Ganieva, and Shai Kremer—were declared the crème de la crème and were rewarded with a summer-long exhibition in Arles' Grand Hall. Now, thousands of miles away, pieces from these six chosen photographers line the walls of Farmani. The result is a microcosm of the festival-at-large, a small, eclectic mash-up of images with subjects ranging from Sarajevan rape victims to murky seascapes.
Of the six "chouchou" on display, there are two clear standouts: Shai Kremer and Harry Bowers. Bowers is a New-York based artist whose "Lost and Found Project" consists of photos of clothing, pressed and placed in deliberate, often humorous arrangements with an emphasis on clean colors and surfaces. Bowers snapped the images in the late 1970's but lost the negatives, only to rediscover them in a move years later. His work sits in stark contrast to that of Kremer, whose delicate color photographs of crumbling landscapes from Isreal, Pakistan, and other war ravaged locales are strangely majestic.
Is this the best show I've been to recently? No. But seeing such a variety of artists in so small a space gives one a glimpse of what the main event in Arles must offer in spades—a welcome, if somewhat dizzying sense that photography is alive and well. And so, if you're of the mind to head to Brooklyn, it's certainly worth scoping out, if only to be reminded that there are lots of photographers out there creating art. And some of it is quite good.
"Les Rencontres D' Arles Chouchou" runs through January 30
Farmani Gallery
111 Front Street, Gallery 212
DUMBO Brooklyn
Take the F to York Street, A or C to High Street
W-Sat, 1-6pm; Tues by appointment only
Gallery Web site: www.farmanigallery.com
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