All in Reviews
Through these images, there is no way for the location to become familiar to a casual viewer. The location has been obscured, but that only makes the content feel more similar to the small observances that are made in each person’s daily life.
The titular series portrayed in Laurie Simmons’ Clothes Make The Man: Works From 1990-1994 consists of 6 nearly identical resin dolls, modeled on wooden ventriloquist dummies. The figures in question will sit side by side on the wall of Chelsea’s Mary Boone Gallery until this July 27, smiling politely at us from their custom-made wooden chairs. They’re dressed to impress in upscale, vintage, 1950’s children’s clothing, and while one looks ready for bed in a robe and pajama pants, the others, in their suits and ties, look ready to do business.
The mirrors are hung at eye level, creating an intimacy between the subject and the viewer. That intimacy is paramount as frames containing images of people seem life-size, reachable, touchable, people that could be spoken with.
Recent photobook Undocumented; Immigration and The Militarization of The United States-Mexico Border by John Moore is a result of the photographer’s 10 years of devotion to the titular subject. Publisher Powerhouse Books represents this work well on upscale glossy paper, working in conjunction with Getty Images, where Moore works as a consultant. Wide ranging and comprehensive in its examination, it begins with the poverty-stricken conditions in Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras that motivate many Latin Americans to flee in pursuit of a better life.
No photographer understands this awareness more than Kevin Lear, a graduate of the Rochester College of Art and long time exhibiter at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and Bradford’s National Media Museum. Kevin Lear’s book, A Glass Darkly, elevates the perspective of the urban dweller by capturing the objects as sculptural art.