Sunday, March 20, 2016

Deborah Schoen - Weekly Post 9

Uta Barth

Uta Barth’s simple photographs follow the traditional rules of composition meanwhile the content of her images are not as simple as they might seem. Barth’s primary focus is on the material complexities of vision and the flawed idea behind expectation. She quotes, “seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees.”
 
Barth asks the viewer to question their desire to fill the void within her images. Her technique is to create an absence that encourages time spent with her photographs. She achieves that by providing monochromatic images that have a foreground or a background but not both. Some of her images are blurred but recognizable to the eye. That is where viewers tend to fill in the information that she is not providing.
 
Barth’s approach to photography is less about aesthetics and more about our intellect as human beings. What I enjoy about Barth’s work is that it brings awareness to my own viewing experience that I can connect with. She is not challenging my intellect but rather asking me to see not just look.

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