three images that made me think

I had a very difficult time finding an image that interested me today. I searched dozens and dozens of shows, but found little of interest. What's going on?

First image:

Jeff Whetstone
Post-Pleistocene
September 12 - October 25, 2008



Julie Saul Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition of photographs by Jeff Whetstone. Whetstone is known for his depictions of rural southern men and the liminal space between culture and wilderness; man and animal. In a new body of work, Post-Pleistocene, Whetstone explores this theme through photographs of the interiors of caves. A native of Tennessee, Whetstone engages the intimacy and community of the world underground.

During the Civil War, caves in Tennessee and Alabama were mined for their saltpetre soil, which was used to produce gunpowder. These caves have since become sites of lore, obsession, and extensive exploration, resulting in an expansive record of human markings, signatures, drawings, and messages. The caves have been so heavily visited that the markings are often several layers deep.

Whetstone sees these cave walls in relation to Pleistocene era drawings, like those in the caves of Lascaux, France. Here he finds the evolution of human expression represented - from frank representations of nature, to layered, expressive gestures reflecting a culture fascinated with personal identity.

I selected this image because it made me think about identity, both that of "Johnny" and the other people who made their mark on the cave walls, and the identity of the photographer. What does this image tell me about Jeff Whetstone?

second image:
New Photography 2008: Josephine Meckseper and Mikhael Subotzky | View the online feature
September 10, 2008–January 5, 2009


Josephine Meckseper
Blow-Up (Tamara, Michelli, Laura). 2006

Chromogenic color print, 78 11/16 x 62 7/8' (199.9 x 159.8 cm). Courtesy Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart; Arndt & Partner, Berlin/Zurich; Elizabeth Dee, New York. © 2008 Josephine Meckseper, Artists Rights Society, New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Josephine Meckseper’s photographs and mixed‑medium installations cunningly expose the links between politics and the consumer worlds of fashion and advertising.

Why did I select this image? I love this work!

Third image:
Red Lines
Death Vows
Foreclosures
Risk Structures
Architectures of finance from the Great Depression to the Subprime Meltdown

An exhibition by Damon Rich and the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)
Commissioned by the Center for Advanced Visual Studies and hosted by the MIT Museum

Damon Rich
Damon Rich is an urban designer working at the intersection of design, policy, and the public. His exhibitions use video, sculpture, graphics, and photography to investigate the political economy of the built environment. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Storefront for Art and Architecture and SculptureCenter (New York City), the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (Liepzig), the Venice Architecture Biennale, and Netherlands Architecture Institute (Rotterdam). In 1997, he founded the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people understand and change the places they live.

I selected this image because it makes me angry.