4. FOTOFESTIVAL
MANNHEIM-LUDWIGSHAFEN-HEIDELBERG 2011
THE EYE IS A LONELY HUNTER: IMAGES OF HUMANKIND
10th September 2011 – 6th November 2011
The 4th edition of the Fotofestival focuses on the role of photography as it bears witness to the human condition at the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century. It poses questions such as: How would a portrait of humankind look like in 2011? What are some of the key issues and challenges facing humanity today? How is contemporary photography able to generate knowledge and social awareness? How are the notions of ‘truth’ and ‘authenticity’ imbued in the photographic image, and where might they reside – in the eye of the beholder, in that of the photographer, or in both? The 4th edition of the Fotofestival aims to present a multifaceted portrait of humanity in all the diversity of our time. As such it sees itself as a voyage into the realm of mankind; an ethnographic and anthropological research by artists in the era of globalisation, in the aftermath of nineteenth and twentieth century colonialism and collapsed ideologies.
Roger Ballen’s point of departure is sociological and anthropological, with a focus on the disenfranchised, the marginalised and the peripheral. His subjects are staged in gloomy and shabby domestic settings, resulting in
powerful, disturbing and alienating pictures, which transcend voyeurism and venture into the territory of the affective. His series Outland (1987–2000) captures the life of the isolated and poor rural white population, who lost any privileges they had with the end of the apartheid and left many in a psychological state of shock. The images in Shadow Chamber, from the first decade of this century, are even more haunting. They picture estranged, psychologically shaken people in grubby rooms, sometimes accompanied by pets. These photographs capture with great empathy the daily life of people living almost entirely outside of society: a telling and intense psychological document of bare life.
curators: KATERINA GREGOS & SOLVEJ HELWEG OVESEN