The exhibition Being / Seeing presents the work of seven new and emerging photographers: Andrej Lamut, Charlotte Mano, Glorija Lizde, Mark McGuinness, Ramona Güntert, Sofia Okkonen, and Toms Harjo. The reason why I chose these specific projects is because they all contemplate ‘being’ or what it means to ‘be’, by either exploring the self, (sub)consciousness, our relation to others, or the body. What also struck me was how the artists went about ‘seeing’ these concepts and capturing them using their unique photographic language. Being / Seeing reflects on QUAD’s year-long theme (April 2018-19) of ‘well-being’ by combining it with the idea of ‘well-seeing’, which is defined by “a person or (later only) the eye: having good vision; that sees clearly or truly” (Oxford Dictionary).
As the camera is often thought of as documenting its subject ‘clearly’ and/or ‘truly’, we can consider the photographer as someone who is well-seeing.
A photographer, akin to the idea of an artistic genius in painting, demonstrates an exceptional ability to see and capture things others have not.
Thus I explain in a new way, the world unknown to you…
(Dziga Vertov, 1923 manifesto)
For human beings, seeing is an act deemed natural and instinctual.
The field of visual culture, however, problematizes this notion by questioning this supposed naturalness and claiming that vision is culturally constructed. Photography similarly problematizes this by showing perspective in a way that is unusual to the human eye. The above quotation was stated in reference to the invention of the camera, since this invention brought about a change in scopic regime. Whereas historically, images like paintings adopted a linear perspective based on the assumption of a singular, central viewer, photography was able to create images through a non-discriminating lens. Vertov’s new way, in the context of this exhibition, also represents the photographer’s personal ‘way of seeing’ in which they choose to express their subject matter. Much like W.J.T. Mitchell states in “Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture”, the photographic projects in Being / Seeing mediate upon “blindness, the invisible, the unseen, the unseeable, and the overlooked” (170). They make visible things that have remained invisible or overlooked by others. Each project can thus be considered as processes and visual explorations, rather than answers to the questions they raise: How do the perceptions of others affect our sense of self? How do we shape our lives around others’ preconceived ideas? And how do we make sense of our own physicality?
Nikki Zoë Omes
