The Art of Bearing Witness: Reuben Radding
© Reuben Radding.
By Micaela Bahn
Street photography lends itself to capturing the improvisational nature of the human character in a way other forms simply miss. The artist has to be open to every interaction in order to glimpse the depth of both their subject and, more broadly, their city. It is a mode of relationality that is inherently fragile and of the moment.
© Reuben Radding.
© Reuben Radding.
Reuben Radding, a Brooklyn based photographer, has spent his distinguished career focusing his lens on images of New York that reveal the city’s emotions, contradictions, and the ongoing stories of its people, all halted behind photographic emulsion. His recent portfolio of work has concentrated on capturing the city in a pivotal moment––the concurrence of both the Coronavirus and protests against police brutality.
© Reuben Radding.
© Reuben Radding.
This year has seen innumerable artists create work in response to the pandemic’s impact on communities across the United States. Representations of New York have been stark and varying, with the president himself calling the city a “ghost town,” much to the chagrin of those who actually wander our streets. Radding’s Corona Diary series reveals the vivid story of a city whose temperament has remained much the same, even when reality became increasingly unsettling in the early quarantine months. Candid images, some haunting and others full of cityslicker irony, contradict the “New York is Dead” narrative.
© Reuben Radding.
© Reuben Radding.
Framed by the context in which he was shooting, the crisp black and white images contain many incidental parallels between people and the constructed urban environment. In one image, Radding trains a keen eye to quickly capture a conspicuously maskless New Yorker. Next to him sits a sign that reads, “The Best Defense is a Strong Immune System. Be Well,” and the high contrast between these two focal points produces new meaning.
© Reuben Radding.
© Reuben Radding.
Conversely, there is then the image of the masked man riding the subway at dawn or dusk. The quality of light with which we view him harmonizes with the exhaustion on his face. In another striking image, the corner of a construction site geometrically divides the photograph in two. A figure walks in the light of one perpendicular plane, unable to see around the deeply shadowed corner. By capturing such dynamic compositions with an absence of color, the artist is able to elicit deeper introspection on loss and our relations to the physical space we inhabit.
© Reuben Radding.
© Reuben Radding.
Where many photographers focused on the empty metropolis in the initial months of the pandemic, Radding’s images distinctly emphasize those who were left behind. His photographs, rich in knowledge of the city’s characters, show familiar individuals under extraordinary circumstances –– the woman who sells tamales on the street, an Orthodox man beneath a bridge in Brooklyn, the man on the subway car who freely expounds his ideas to anyone who will listen. The artist does not attempt to generalize a single experience in order to capture the lives and sufferings of this pandemic. He creates a people’s history with many different renderings of the same city.
© Reuben Radding.
© Reuben Radding.
More of Reuben Radding’s work can be seen on his website. The Corona Diary series is available in a set of limited edition zines that can be found here.
