I recently
visited the POWER/Prix Pictet exhibition in the small photography
museum Huis Marseille in Amsterdam. The exhibition features some
great photographs;
My personal favourite
is a photograph by Daniel Beltrá of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico. The interplay of the deep blue colour of the ocean and the
rainbow palette of the floating oil is beautiful. The water-oil
interface creates some really interesting demarcated lines, which are
accentuated by the curly lines of the slipstream of a ship.
Another nice part of
the exhibition is a series of several photographs by Guy Tillim on
the 2006 elections in Congo-Kinshasa. The photographs are of large
outdoor rallies, but they retain an intimate air despite the hectic
and crowded environment. Some of the crowds contain shots of faces
that would do well as individual portraits, and all photographs give
off a feeling of what down-town Kinshasa must be like – the heat
and humidity leaving sweat droplets on your neck that mingle with the
omnipresent dust, the dust that leaves a thin yellowish layer on your
three-piece suit.
The winner of the 2012
Prix Pictet is Luc Delahaye, his best photograph exhibited is 'Les
Pillards', which shows five pillagers, running away from something
that is not in the picture (possibly the police?), in the aftermath
of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. It is the facial expression of the
pillagers really makes this picture what it is, so it is at its best
when seen in large (as a postcard it wasn't as good).
The USSR-born
photographer Rena Effendi deserves some mention here for her
still-lifes taken in the area surrounding Chernobyl. I particularly
liked her photographs of foodstuffs in the rustic kitchens of the
people that have moved back into the area. Mrs. Effendi has a good
eye for colour compositions, and the result has a picturesque
quality.
There are, however,
there are some weak points. Firstly, the exhibition is really quite
small; which is to be expected since the museum isn't particularly
big, but at the time of my visit, part of the museum was being
rebuilt (or refurbished, I'm not sure), so it was even smaller than
normal. A part of the exhibition that wasn't too good consisted of a
bunch of motion pictures in the garden house of the museum; their
simultaneously played soundtrack created a cacophony, and the motion
pictures themselves weren't interesting visually.
Despite
this, there's some really nice things to be seen, and if you're a
student (entry only costs 3 Euros) or are the proud owner of a
Museumkaart or an 'I
Amsterdam City card' (free entry), you really should visit the
museum.
I
can't wait for the next exhibition in Huis Marseille starting the
22nd
of June, called 'Walker Evans / Decade by Decade'.
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