Monday, January 18, 2016

Deborah Schoen - Weekly Post 1.3

Michael Ashkin

Michael Askin's documentary series is black and white and in a vertical format. He uses skewed angles and deep depth of field that does not focus on any particular detail. Tonal elements are his primary focus.
Ashkin is known for his post-industry landscapes. His New Jersey photographic series of Long Branch addresses the spatial aspects of a society that was eradicated by a corrupt system. Ashkin’s images contain “the ordering of one’s life,” which was abused and forced out of a tension driven grid.
 
Ashkin’s work reminds me of Hine, Lange, and Evan images during the Great Depression. His series has a similar “photo story” that is about a failed economic system. However, Ashkin’s images do not contain any people and the interesting angles remind us of the instability of many communities around the world, ones that could easily be turned on top of one another. A pensive sadness is achieved in his tonal compositions that is felt even if one does not know the story of Long Branch.

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