Metropolis

The staging metaphor is a conscious visual construction of the photographer, yet the subjects are "real". In this sense, Metropolis has certain affinities with Walker Evans' famous Subway Portraits from the early thirties. But while Evans used a hidden camera at short distance to capture the passengers sitting opposite him in the wagon, Joan Villaplana draws on an "invisible" camera that he holds in his hands to portrait the commuters on the other side of the platform. What the pictures have in common is not only that they show the (lack of) interaction between commuters that just happen to be at the same place, at the same time: They also share a deep reflection on documentary photography as a genre that exposes a (human) object to the pointed gaze of the photographer and his weapon, the camera. 

 

The particular impact of Joan Villaplana's series is thus created through the visual reference to theatre on the one hand, and the "invisible camera technique" on the other. This way, the photographer imparts to his pictures the aesthetics of a staged scenery. If one gives in to this deception and lets imagination run free, the whole range possible interpretation emerge: What is the old man with a child at his hand looking at? And what is the internal monologue of that woman with the shopping bag all about? As soon as one switches back from the theatre metaphor to the real photo venue, the scenes coalesce into one; that of our contemporary life in a city in which we pay for the attained freedom with the isolation in the mass.

 

Joan Villaplana - Metropolis
04.11.- 25. 11. 2008

 

Lumen Gallery
Mikszáth Kálmán tér 2.
1088 Budapest
Opening hours: Tue-Fr: 8.30-19h, Sat: 10-17h, Sun-Monday: closed