I had the opportunity to go down to the GPP gallery this week and view the exhibition of photographs taken by David Alan Harvey. David has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1993, and is the founder of Burn Magazine, an award-winning and grant giving online and in print journal for emerging photographers.
The exhibition primarily revolved around selected images from his recent award winning limited edition book (based on a true story) which depicts the vibrancy and cultural energy of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Raw, sensual, fresh, real, and passionate, these photographs reflect a broad demographic spectrum, offering a peek into the lives of the rich, the glamorous, the poor, the humble and the everyday.
This was one of the images exhibited and I thought it to be a very compelling image. I think one of the reasons was the combination of the pastel colors (pink, blue and yellow) as well the composition. It almost as if I was there sitting on the beach looking up at this girl. I did wonder what segment of society she came from; was she from the rich (and spoilt) class or from the humble and poor (defiant). I couldn't really decide. In the end, I figured it was more the former than the latter; after all she was at the beach eating ice cream and generally enjoying herself.
Not all the images from this book was displayed at the exhibition and I can understand why. It's the Middle East and some of the images would have pushed the boundaries of what would be culturally acceptable I think. I went on the Magnum website and had a look at the entire book; the book is a "visual novella that takes you deep in.. to a fictional night in Rio". Using that context to view the rest of the images made me think of a night of chaos and unbridled passions (and not necessarily in a good way). A lot of the images had a very confrontational almost harsh depiction of the subjects. Many of the images didn't appeal to me at all; both from a subject matter point of view (too raw; too sensual and sometimes both) as well as the technical style (shot with harsh lighting (flash head on) almost to emphasize the dreariness and desolation of some of the subjects.)
I spent a considerable amount of time looking at them but I could'nt really make up my mind about how I felt about all of them. Clearly the images are compelling otherwise I wouldn't have spent a long time thinking about them but I am not sure I would ever put them up on my living room wall.
The book design is quite amazing. Again, I saw a video showing the layout and it's really quite ingenious.
The exhibition also displayed some of his images from Divided Soul and his new limited edition series but these felt almost tame compared to the kind of imagery that was captured during this "fictional night" in Rio.