PHOTO / DIARY presents photography by Edgar Endress, Jati Lindsay, Susana Raab, E. Brady Robinson, and Dawn Whitmore. The works in the exhibition range from documentary works and street photography to photographic tableaux.
Every photograph records a moment. That moment may be the presence of an individual, a memory or a thought of a certain place, or a combination of elements that may not reveal itself until seen far away from the scene of the photograph and the trappings of the photographer.
The photograph commonly performs the function of a diary or journal entry. As social media and the sharing of images take center stage in our communications with others, the singular photo created between the photographer and subject, or photographer and object, continues to hold a certain power.
Referencing the early 20th century photography of the Andes region, Edgar Endress adapts Apolinar Escobar’s old-world camera and low-tech paper negative process to document modern-day inhabitants in La Paz, Bolivia. The subjects of Portraits in the Yungas’ Market are day laborers whose trades are displayed prominently in bold lettering on the toolbars they carry.
Jati Lindsay’s Bright Moments series documents some of the most influential young jazz musicians in the industry. His large-scale portraits convey the spirit of live performance in still black-and-white images.
Susana Raab’s photographs of the Washington, DC community known colloquially as East of the River highlight the exuberance and independence of her portrait subjects situated against the backdrop of their neighborhoods. Raab is “looking to cross the river and breach that invisible wall that obscures the experience of our shared humanity on either side of the river.”
E. Brady Robinson‘s Street Portraits focus on creatives living and working in the District, placed against the backdrop of emerging spaces throughout the city. Robinson makes her own choice of location and allows the subject to respond.
In Memories of a Decade Past Dawn Whitmore appropriates images from her life between ages twenty and thirty, adding other photographs and physical objects such as fresh fruit and artificial plants. The resulting re-photographed images are a pictorial diary of the past brought into the present moment.
The photographers in PHOTO / DIARY seek to expand traditional ideas of the photograph as document.