America in Crisis

This excellent exhibition at the Saatchi gallery takes an update look at a photobook first published in 1969. The concept of The American Dream was first articulated by James Trunslow Adams in the 1930s as a reference to equality and opportunity for all in the American democratic system. By the late 60s, the imagery reflects a broken system. Updated in 2021, the message is that nothing has changed.

A key image maker for the original selection was Charles Harbutt, a Magnum photographer who also conceived and curated the exhibition and publication of the book. It begins with his shot of a middle-class white family relaxing on their Upper Manhattan balcony, looking down (literally) on the NY tenements below.

Fig 1.

Another of Harbutt’s images (see Fig. 1) features what appears to be a huge American flag dominating a (sub?) urban landscape, although I am sure the lens/angle were chosen to exaggerate this. The influence of Robert Frank is very clear here – in fact many of Harbutt’s pictures reminded me of others, such as a later one of a Puerto Rican family in NYC which looked like it was shot by Bruce Davidson.

Strange to say some of the imagery appears almost too perfect to reflect the circumstances. Philip Montgomery’s image of a brutal police arrest is lit perfectly with incredible depth of field. It’s certainly an amazing shot (see Fig. 2)but does not convey the rawness of the situation.

Fig. 2

Burt Glinn’s street scene the morning after the assasination of Martin Luther King is also a great image but the aesthetic arrangement in the frame of all the upright elements with the two soldiers and the damaged mannequin is again almost too good to be true, shot in perfect early light on wet streets creating a foreground clarity offset with a misty backdrop.

Fig. 3 Street scene the morning after the assassination of Martin Luther King, leader of the civil rights movement (1968)

A contemporary photographer who featured strongly in the exhibiton was Matt Black, whose recent excellent book American Geography records a journey through the States Black took when he realised it was possible to travel extensively without leaving poverty-struck regions. The monochrome style fitted well with the original images, and seems to reiterate the message even more powerfully than the colour ones.

However another aspect of the modern crisis is environmental, which was eloquently described by Anastasia Samaylova’s pastel pink images of flood damaged Florida. This is very effective use of colour in photography for me, which carries meaning beyond the mere fact.

Fig. 4 from Floodzone

Much of the context provided at the exhibition was statistical, the sheer weight of numerical evidence for once making a point perhaps even more strongly than the imagery. An average of 100 Americans die every day from gun violence.

Balazs Gardi seems to echo this factual approach in his high-tone conflict photography – eschewing the grit of heavy contrast, the clean lines of his Capitol photographs (see Fig. 5) seem to describe the confrontation all too clearly, underlined by the accuracy of the image’s title.

Fig 5. The Capitol, 2:15 P.M. January 6, 2021, Washington D.C.

The exhibition also featured a digital version of Harbutt’s Picture Bandit, a slot machine of images that pop up randomly on the pull or a lever or press of a button. The point was to question the role and influence of the editor in assembling images. It was fun, but I’m not sure it really made this point since the exhibition carried quite a powerful message.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/politics/america-in-crisis-revisited/ (Accessed 1.6.2022)
2. Black, M. (2021) American Geography. UK: Thames & Hudson

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Harbutt, C. Exhibition image from America in Crisis
2. Montgomery, P. Exhibition image from America in Crisis
3. Glinn, B. (1968) Street scene the morning after the assassination of Martin Luther King, leader of the civil rights movement. At: https://medeia.site/en/products/70/ (Accessed 1.6.2022)
4. Samoylova, A. from Floodzone At: https://www.anasamoylova.com/projects#/floodzone/ (Accessed 2.6.2022)
5. Gardi, B. (2021)The Capitol, 2:15 P.M. January 6, 2021, Washington D.C. At: https://www.1854.photography/2022/01/capitol-attack-bronx-documentary-center-new-york-exhibition/ (Accessed 1.6.2022)