Noorderlicht

Global Detail

The consequences of globalisation

main exhibition / 7 sep 19 oct 2003

AES+F Group

• ACTION HALF LIFE

  The AES Group caused a sensation during Noorderlicht 2001 with their manipulated photographs of Western cities under Islamic domination. The series received a sour topicality with the attack on the World Trade Center that took place during the exhibition.
  
  The latest project from AES also mixes fantasy and reality. In Action Half Life young photo models play the roles of heroines in a futuristic-looking war. The images refer to both computer games and the illusion of a 'clean war'.
  
  The AES Group consists of graphic designer Evgeny Svyatsky and conceptual architects Tatiana Arzamasova and Lev Evzovich. The three work together regularly with fashion photographer Vladimir Fridke; on those occasions his F is added to the other initials.

  

Christopher Anderson

• COFFEE CRISIS

  Over the last ten years the balanced coffee market has been flooded with millions of sacks of coffee beans from Vietnam, causing the trade in coffee to collapse. With the support of the IMF and European Funds many Vietnamese farmers started growing coffee. Today Vietnam is both cause and victim of the coffee crisis. For his reportage Anderson travelled not only to Vietnam, which is pouring out the coffee, but also Brazil, the largest coffee producer in the world. In Italy he visited the Illy family business. Illy sets high standards for its product, and gives Brazilian coffee farmers a fair price for the quality 'Arabica' beans.

  

• COFFEE CRISIS

  

• COFFEE CRISIS

  

• COFFEE CRISIS

  

• COFFEE CRISIS

  

Yto Barrada

• TANGER

  Because of strict hygiene regulations and high wages, the peeling of shrimp as a home industry is hardly found in The Netherlands any more. Shrimp from the North Sea are thus peeled in low-wage countries such as Morocco. They return north for the Dutch market via the peeling factories of Tangier.
  
  The photographs are part of the series The Strait: A Record of Northern Ennui (2001), in which the Moroccan/French photographer Yto Barrada (b. 1971) sketches the life without prospects in the northern Moroccan city of Tangier. Daily life there is defined by dreams of crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and obtaining a better future in Europe.

  

• TANGER

  

Harvey Benge

• FIRST EVER PICTURES OF GOD

  Harvey Benge (b. 1944) is a photographer with an eye for non-places. He finds them in diverse world cities such as London, Paris, Bangkok and Melbourne. At spots, which many would walk right past, he photographs details for his investigation into universal urban life. A door bell, neon lights, a shop window - they are what he calls 'parallel signs' which occur everywhere in the world. Sporadically they betray something of their geographic location, but for the most part there appear to be hardly any cultural differences among world cities.

  

• FIRST EVER PICTURES OF GOD

  

• FIRST EVER PICTURES OF GOD

  

• FIRST EVER PICTURES OF GOD

  

• FIRST EVER PICTURES OF GOD

  

Barbara Bühler

• CONFERENCE ROOMS

  In 2001 Barbara Bühler photographed conference rooms of large financial institutions in Liechtenstein. She made shots both before and after closed meetings. The displaced chairs shuffled-through papers and empty coffee cups give little indication of the decisions taken there, and illustrate the invisibility of power, money and influential persons.

  

• CONFERENCE ROOMS

  

• CONFERENCE ROOMS

  

Peter Bialobrzeski

• NEON TIGERS

  European cities are sometimes true architectural museums. In Asia, in contrast, cities change constantly and every decade the skyline undergoes a metamorphosis. Bialobrzeski (b. 1961) investigated six metropolises in Asian 'tiger states' and emphasises the beauty and the absurdity of their headlong urban development.

  

• NEON TIGERS

  

• NEON TIGERS

  

• NEON TIGERS

  

Nico Bick

• HYPERMARKETS

  In recent years Nico Bick has photographed mega-supermarkets in various European countries. His uniform approach reinforces their homogeneity. At the same time his large and very detailed photographs offer multiple layers through which to browse and discover just how refined the structures of the shopping environment are. Mineral water or soap powder are not just displayed anywhere at random. This realisation throws a whole different light on the idea of freedom of choice.

  

• HYPERMARKETS

  

• HYPERMARKETS

  

• HYPERMARKETS

  

Edward Burtynsky

• SHIPBREAKING

  Since the late 1970s Edward Burtynsky has specialised in industrial landscape photography. For the series Shipbreaking he followed the dismantling of scrapped tankers and freight ships in Bangladesh. There in several months time the ships are taken apart by hand: hulls, bridges and metal lie along the coast like sometimes dazzling extraterrestrial objects. Shipbreaking provides many jobs and is the only source of iron, steel and copper in the country. But during the process oil and toxic substances are released that threaten the people and ecology of the coastal areas. Burtynsky (b. 1955) illuminates both sides of the story.

  

• SHIPBREAKING

  

• SHIPBREAKING

  

Carol Condé & Karl Beveridge

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  The staged series Calling the Shots subtly illustrates the ritual dance among anti-globalists, politicians and journalists. It is a series of linked-together images that carry the viewer along from a protest march to a television studio to a political press conference.

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

• CALLING THE SHOTS

  

Henrik Duncker

• IF NOKIA WERE A PLACE

  The Finish name Nokia is known around the world through mobile telephones. It is however also the name of a small city two hundred kilometres north of Helsinki. The rubber factory, which was started there around 1900, put Nokia on the map and also provided work for half its population. In the 1970s the firm shifted its attention to the cleaner electronics field and left the city. While the firm flourished, the place fell into a deep economic crisis. A fast-growing service sector brought salvation. Duncker (b. 1963) photographed life in the city over two years.

  

• IF NOKIA WERE A PLACE

  

• IF NOKIA WERE A PLACE

  

• IF NOKIA WERE A PLACE

  

• IF NOKIA WERE A PLACE

  

Sophia Evans

• DIRTY OIL BUSINESS

  Since Royal Dutch Shell discovered oil in the Niger delta in 1958, Nigeria has developed into the sixth largest oil producer in the world. While the government was taking most of the profits, the local Ogoni people were confronted with the consequences: pollution of the environment and the disappearance of fish and wild animals. Under the leadership of the writer Ken Saro Wiwa, in the early 1990s the Ogoni demanded compensation. The campaign was hard-headedly suppressed by the government and the oil companies, and together with several co-workers Saro Wiwa was hung in 1995 after a dubious trial.
  
  In 2002 the Malawi-born Evans (b. 1968) travelled to the region for the first phase of a long-term project in which she will be following the social, political, economic and cultural developments in Nigeria.

  

• DIRTY OIL BUSINESS

  

• DIRTY OIL BUSINESS

  

• DIRTY OIL BUSINESS

  

• DIRTY OIL BUSINESS

  

Stuart Franklin

• THE NEW EUROPE

  
  The European Union began in 1958 with six countries that wished to co-ordinate the production of coal and steel. It now comprises fifteen lands and there are another twelve, primarily from the former Eastern bloc, that have been nominated for membership. EU regulations now cover the environment, defence and agriculture, and extend into all possible details of daily life. Magnum photographer Franklin (b. 1956) investigates the influence of the far-reaching regulations on the look of the new Europe.

  

• THE NEW EUROPE

  The European Union began in 1958 with six countries that wished to co-ordinate the production of coal and steel. It now comprises fifteen lands and there are another twelve, primarily from the former Eastern bloc, that have been nominated for membership. EU regulations now cover the environment, defence and agriculture, and extend into all possible details of daily life. Magnum photographer Franklin (b. 1956) investigates the influence of the far-reaching regulations on the look of the new Europe.

  

• THE NEW EUROPE

  

• THE NEW EUROPE

  

• THE NEW EUROPE

  

Andreas Gefeller

• SOMA

  Skyscraper hotels with enormous parking fields, beaches of dredged-up sand, rows of beach chairs running for miles and dried out lawns surrounded by concrete. That is the standard landscape of vacation resorts like Gran Canaria.
  
  Gefeller (b. 1970) transformed this landscape into a cool, utopian stage set. His photographs are spatial and disorienting, as if they had been digitally manipulated. But they are real shots, albeit of unreal-looking tourist destinations. In his book Soma (2002) Gefeller combines the photographs with quotes from writers such as Aldous Huxley, Elias Canetti and Ray Bradbury.

  

• SOMA

  

• SOMA

  

• SOMA

  

Johann Sebastian Hanel

• TREES, WHICH ARE NOT TREES

  From a distance it looked like a normal tree. Then one stormy day Hänel was struck by the fact that this tree stood still in the midst of its fellow trees blowing back and forth. Hänel realised that it had to be an artificial tree, made to camouflage the antennas for the mobile telephone network. Captivated by the absurdity of this idea, he has scoured Europe for more trees that are actually not trees.

  

• TREES, WHICH ARE NOT TREES

  

Jacqueline Hassink

• CAR GIRLS

  Automobile manufacturing is among the world's largest industries. When auto manufacturers want to distinguish themselves from one another with their products, they all present their newest cars in the same manner: with the help of female models. Surprised at the uniformity of this business culture, Hassink visited automobile shows around the world.

  

• CAR GIRLS

  

Peter Hendricks

• GOOD COPY

  In GOOD COPY photographer Peter Hendricks (b. 1955) is at the same time observer, narrator and part of the story. The photographs that he made for the past seven years of his wife and growing children are the basis for this project. He combines these personal images, extremely recognisable as such by their style, with photographs of famine and war zones, made during his trips to Africa and the Balkans. In these photographs he tries to give form to the degree of emotional involvement that he experiences in watching world events. The project appeared in 2001 in book form. ('Good copy' is the confirmation of a static free reception in radio communication and prevents the repetition of an incoming message).

  

• GOOD COPY

  

• GOOD COPY

  

• GOOD COPY

  

• GOOD COPY

  

Fritz Hoffmann

• BORN IN THE PRC

  The Hilfiger brand name is associated with clothing and bedding. The exclusive products claim to be American, while they are made almost anywhere and everywhere in the world. In 2001 Hoffmann (b. 1959) photographed the production of Hilfiger 'Old Glory' bedspreads, inspired by the American flag, as they were made by farmers in the western Chinese province of Zhejiang. They receive less than $3 for a product that costs $300 in America.

  

• BORN IN THE PRC

  

• BORN IN THE PRC

  

• BORN IN THE PRC

  

• BORN IN THE PRC

  

Robert Huber

• HEIDILAND

  In 2001 tourist resorts all over Switzerland focused on the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the death of Johanna Spyri, author of the world-famous children's book on Heidi, the little girl from the Alps. In every way possible they tried to satisfy the expectations of their clients, created through films and television series. That was no simple task. While Japanese are looking for Heidi's dog, Europeans look for her goats and Americans her cows. The result was a varied collection of Heidi sets.

  

• HEIDILAND

  

• HEIDILAND

  

• HEIDILAND

  

• HEIDILAND

  

Rhodri Jones

• MADE IN CHINA

  China is a land where 'the traditional tea ceremony is being replaced by soft-drink machines', according to Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths in the foreword to Jones's photo book Made in China (2002). For six years Jones travelled through the country with its 1.3 million residents, in search of the people who are hidden behind the growing flood of products with the label 'Made in China'. His photographs show the lightning fast and radical changes that its 5000 year old culture is undergoing under the influence of the West.

  

• MADE IN CHINA

  

• MADE IN CHINA

  

• MADE IN CHINA

  

• MADE IN CHINA

  

Bernd Jonkmanns

• CALLCENTERS

  
  In the Indian 'high tech' city of Bangalore many young, well-educated people work in the call centres of American multinationals such as American Express and Dell Computers. The bulk works at night because of the time difference. The telephonists receive language lessons, are kept updated on the latest American happenings and even use assumed American names, so that clients will not notice that they are talking to somebody in India when they have dialled an American service number. The difference between the traditional situation at home and their modern shadow lives creates social and psychological problems, particularly among the young women.

  

• CALLCENTERS

  

• CALLCENTERS

  

• CALLCENTERS

  

• CALLCENTERS

  

Roshini Kempadoo

• VIRTUAL EXILES

  The reasons people leave the countries where they were born can differ considerably. But what rarely differs is the relation with their new country. Migrants always remain outsiders, caught between two cultures. This theme is central to the work of Roshini Kempadoo (b. 1959). In images assembled digitally she combines her own photographs with archive materials that she has collected in Guyana and from the holdings of European anthropological institutions.

  

• VIRTUAL EXILES

  

• VIRTUAL EXILES

  

• VIRTUAL EXILES

  

• VIRTUAL EXILES

  

Carl de Keyzer

• TABLEAUX D'HISTOIRE

  Tableaux d'Histoire is a project that has already run for some years, in which the frequently honoured Magnum photographer De Keyzer (b. 1958) comments on the concept of 'news' in an unorthodox and ironic manner. During stereotypical 'press events' such as an international summit in Davos or a debutante ball in Paris, he records not what happens in front of the footlights, but the spectacle that takes place on the sidelines, or behind the scenes. The composition, lighting and large format of the photographs refers explicitly to 19th century history painting. Obviously, he only shows or publishes the results much later, when the event itself has long ceased to have any news value.

  

• TABLEAUX D'HISTOIRE

  

• TABLEAUX D'HISTOIRE

  

• TABLEAUX D'HISTOIRE

  

Damjan Kocjancic

• THE THORN

  Slovenia, once part of the former Yugoslavia, is one of the countries on the threshold of entering the European Union. For the Slovenians the West, and the prosperity they expect will accompany it, is coming increasingly close. But far from everyone can afford the life of luxury to come or knows how to adjust to the new, success-oriented society. With the approach of the West, for many a confrontation with their own failures is looming. In order to escape reality, many young people seek refuge in drugs and alcohol. In the eyes of Kocjancic (b. 1970), they reflect the transition to a new Slovenia.

  

• THE THORN

  

• THE THORN

  

• THE THORN

  

• THE THORN

  

John Lambrichts

• BRICKFIELDS

  
  In the Malaysian capital city, Kuala Lumpur, the ultramodern Stesen Sentral (Central Station) opened in 2001. It lies in Brickfields, one of the oldest and most traditional neighbourhoods on the edge of the city. With a new subway system and the high speed Klia Express to the airport, Brickfields is now linked with the rest of the city and the world. The consequences have been enormous, for the culture among other things. Shanty towns and kampongs must give way to apartment complexes, and street markets are replaced by modern shopping malls. The neighbourhood is a big pit where many illegals work. The subclass (small entrepeneurs, the blind, the homeless, prostitutes) is pushed to the margins.

  

• BRICKFIELDS

  

• BRICKFIELDS

  

• BRICKFIELDS

  

• BRICKFIELDS

  

Martin Luijendijk

• LINE 7, A WORLD JOURNEY

  
  The trams of line 7 run across Rotterdam from the deprived neighbourhood of Spangen to the prosperous Kralingen. On the way the tram runs through neighbourhoods which vary greatly in terms of appearance, population, nationality and culture. Luijendijk photographed the interiors of stores along the route: the baker and the jeweller, the second hand shop and the chic restaurant, the Islamic butcher and the Indian sari shop. His photographs are a report on a world tour through his own city, reflecting the multicultural society of the Netherlands while at the same time revealing the economic differences.

  

• LINE 7, A WORLD JOURNEY

  

• LINE 7, A WORLD JOURNEY

  

• LINE 7, A WORLD JOURNEY

  

• LINE 7, A WORLD JOURNEY

  

Veit Mette

• GROUND ZERO

  
  The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, changed daily life in New York radically. In November 2001, Mette (b. 1961) started from 'ground zero' to walk through the wounded city and photograph the aftermath of the event. He saw how in a few weeks grief and pain had been transformed into control and suspicion. Ignoring all photographic technique, with a Polaroid camera Mette recorded the feelings of fear, insecurity and uncertainty.
  

  

• GROUND ZERO

  

• GROUND ZERO

  

• GROUND ZERO

  

• GROUND ZERO

  

Boris Missirkov

• THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

  The spread of American culture in Eastern Europe is an important theme in Missirkov's work. For The Bold and the Beautiful (2001) he photographed living rooms in which the television is tuned in to the soap opera, which by now is also popular in Bulgaria. The photographs illustrate how Americanisation slips into Eastern European societies unnoticed. At the same time the series offers a look at Bulgarian interiors and indirectly gives a picture of social life in that country.

  

• THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

  

• THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

  

• THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

  

• THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

  

Fernando Moleres

• CHILDREN AT WORK

  Today there are still millions of children performing heavy and dangerous work on a daily basis. Particularly in poor countries with inadequate educational systems it is easy to abuse a labour force of children. This has enormous consequences for their physical and mental development. Fernando Moleres pictures the worst forms of child labour.

  

• CHILDREN AT WORK

  

• CHILDREN AT WORK

  

• CHILDREN AT WORK

  

• CHILDREN AT WORK

  

Randy Olson

• RAPE OF GUYANA

  Guyana is the least developed country of South America, with the highest debt per inhabitant. Nevertheless, its soil is rich with gold and diamonds and rivers like the Essequibo have the richest assortment of fish species of all South America. The minerals are being extracted by large multinationals. Because of the mining the land is eroding and the rivers are becoming polluted. The fish stock is decreasing rapidly. For the indigenous people it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain drinking water and protein rich food. Randy Olson travelled along the Essequibo in search of the Indians who are being forced to withdraw deeper and deeper into the rain forest.

  

• RAPE OF GUYANA

  

• RAPE OF GUYANA

  

• RAPE OF GUYANA

  

• RAPE OF GUYANA

  

Raghu Rai

• EXPOSURE, PORTRAIT OF A CORPORATE CRIME

  
  On the night of 2-3 December 1984, after a gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticide factory there, a disaster occurred in the Indian city of Bhopal. The death toll since then has been estimated at 7000, with the number of injured several times that. After the catastrophe Raghu Rai photographed the face of a child, shortly before its burial. This photograph, the World Press Photo of the year, became an icon of the tragedy.
  
  Eighteen years later, at the invitation of Greenpeace Rai (b. 1942) returned to the scene of the disaster. Thousands of people still suffer daily from the consequences of the calamity. Poisons in the soil continue to pollute the drinking water.

  

• EXPOSURE, PORTRAIT OF A CORPORATE CRIME

  

• EXPOSURE, PORTRAIT OF A CORPORATE CRIME

  

• EXPOSURE, PORTRAIT OF A CORPORATE CRIME

  

• EXPOSURE, PORTRAIT OF A CORPORATE CRIME

  

Edith Roux

• UNDERSCAPES

  Asia has also entered the era of extravagant consumption. There too shopping has become an important leisure time activity. Developments in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai are a symbol of this process.
  
  Roux (b. 1961) photographed in the city's subway, which increasingly has been taken over by advertising, billboards and other expressions of the advancing cult of consumption. Her photographs give an impression of this invasion of public space and the human spirit.
  
  Underscapes is presented in the form of an interactive installation that enables the viewer to travel along with the subway passengers.

  

• UNDERSCAPES

  

• UNDERSCAPES

  

• UNDERSCAPES

  

• UNDERSCAPES

  

Manuel Sendon

• SPITTING WINDWARD

  Spring 2002: the tanker 'Prestige' began leaking oil off La Coruna on the Spanish coast. The Spanish authorities had the ship towed to deep water. The result was an unprecedented oil spill. Unsatisfied with the action of the government authorities, the local population united in the action group Nunca Más (Never again!). Sendón joined with them and in the series Cuspindo a Barlovento (Spitting into the wind) recorded how Nunca Más cleaned up the beaches of his youth, often with nothing more than frying pans, knives and pitchforks.

  

• SPITTING WINDWARD

  

• SPITTING WINDWARD

  

• SPITTING WINDWARD

  

• SPITTING WINDWARD

  

Michel Séméniako

• EXIL

  Michel Séméniako knows firsthand what exile is. His parents fled from communist Russia in 1921, his wife from General Franco's Spain in 1950. He knows from close up what refugees feel: anxiety mixed with hope for a better life. A refugee cuts all links with his past. It makes him a shadow - often hounded.
  
  Séménaiko (b. 1944), specialising in night photography, visualises this 'dehumanising' in night shots that, with the assistance of a group of artist friends are made with the use of a infrared camera. Exil (2002) comprises three parts: 'The escape' (green), 'The wandering' (blue) and 'Tomorrow, all is going to change' (red).

  

• EXIL

  

• EXIL

  

• EXIL

  

• EXIL

  

• EXIL

  

Michalis Sourlis

• BREAKING INTO BOLLYWOOD

  With more than 800 film productions per year, Bollywood is one of the largest glamour industries in the world. Every day more than 250 young Indians apply with the hope of becoming a film star. Only a few will succeed, because the average Bollywood film contains many fight and dance scenes, and it is expected that actors also possess beauty, strength and stamina.
  
  Sourlis (b. 1972) followed a group of young hopefuls through their auditions and their first appearance in a film. Sourlis is a freelance photographer and works chiefly in Europe and India. He is based in England.

  

• BREAKING INTO BOLLYWOOD

  

• BREAKING INTO BOLLYWOOD

  

• BREAKING INTO BOLLYWOOD

  

• BREAKING INTO BOLLYWOOD

  

Jules Spinatsch

• TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT

  Since the protest actions against globalisation got totally out of hand in Seattle in 1999, the sites of important international summits are invariably turned into true fortresses. Buildings are surrounded by extra security and approach roads are blocked off. From fear of disturbances shopkeepers board up their windows and protect their neon lighting and signs. Normal life grinds to a halt. Totally sealed off from the rest of the world, political leaders among themselves come to decisions on questions of global importance.

  

• TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT

  

• TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT

  

• TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT

  

• TEMPORARY DISCOMFORT

  

Manit Sriwanichpoom

• THIS BLOODLESS WAR

  Increasing consumption at the expense of Asia's unique identity and culture is an important theme in Sriwanichpoom's work. In This Bloodless War (1997) he recreated famous photographs from the Vietnam War, which according to Sriwanichpoom was as drastic then as the loss of Asian culture is now. The casualties are no longer the victims of American soldiers. There are no weapons or corpses here. In place of these there are people in brand name clothing who scream, run and fall just as the victims in the famous photographs of thirty years ago did. In his work Sriwanichpoom (b. 1961) makes frequent use of historic image material in order to draw historic parallels.
  

  

• THIS BLOODLESS WAR

  

• THIS BLOODLESS WAR

  

• THIS BLOODLESS WAR

  

• THIS BLOODLESS WAR

  

Tendance Floue

• NOUS N'IRONS PLUS AUX PARADIS

  With Nous n'irons plus aux Paradis the French photographers' collective Tendance Floue originally intended to document a number of demonstrations against globalisation. As was the case with their first visual report on the situation in the world, published in 1999, they also gradually introduced other events that were connected with their main motif. For instance, images of the disaster with the oil tanker 'Erika', the September 11 attacks and the Middle East conflict ultimately also assume an important place in their 'reportage', which appeared in book form in 2002.
  
  During Noorderlicht the photographs will be shown in the form of a projection/collage.
  
  Tendance Floue is: Pascal Aimar, Thierry Ardouin, Denis Bourges, Gilles Coulon, Olivier Culmann, Mat Jacob, Caty Jan, Philippe Lopparelli, Meyer, Patrick Tourneboeuf, Stephan Zaubitzer

  

• NOUS N'IRONS PLUS AUX PARADIS

  

• NOUS N'IRONS PLUS AUX PARADIS

  

• NOUS N'IRONS PLUS AUX PARADIS

  

• NOUS N'IRONS PLUS AUX PARADIS

  

Yrjö Tuunanen

• SHOES FROM VIETNAM

  
  In 2001 Yrjö Tuunanen (b. 1964), together with the journalist Elina Grundström, visited a Vietnamese shoe factory, which produces footwear for the Finish market. On this trip, commissioned by their client, they saw young and smiling workers in brand new clothing. Later in the year they returned unannounced to collect supplementary material. Although the outward circumstances had not changed, the atmosphere in the factory had become chilly. The workers no longer had time to receive their visitors: work had to be done. Things from third world countries that are marketed in the West as 'clean' fair trade products are also merchandise made during long days and under bad circumstances.

  

• SHOES FROM VIETNAM

  

• SHOES FROM VIETNAM

  

• SHOES FROM VIETNAM

  

• SHOES FROM VIETNAM

  

Robert Walker

• CONSUMING ICONS

  Since the 1980s Robert Walker has been fascinated by colour. Inspired by Pop Art artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenburg, for years he has photographed the street scene in large cities like New York, where advertising on façades, in shop windows and on billboards must fight for attention. In these photographs, which have appeared in the book Color is Power (2002), among other places, commerce declares its power over the street in bright lights and screaming colours. In Las Vegas Walker (b. 1945) documented another aspect of visual pushiness. The city, known for its casinos, is dominated by colossal copies of famous buildings.

  

• CONSUMING ICONS

  

• CONSUMING ICONS

  

• CONSUMING ICONS

  

• CONSUMING ICONS

  

Qingsong Wang

• THIS GLORIOUS LIFE

  In 1992 two historic events took place in China: Deng Xiaoping announced the glorification of wealth, and the first McDonalds opened in Beijing. Since then China has increasingly been in the grip of modernisation and the country has undergone enormous changes. In his staged and digitally manipulated photographs Qingsong Wang (b. 1961) visualises how centuries-old Chinese cultural traditions make way for the Western consumer identity.
  
  Many of his images refer to patriotic paintings and propaganda films. He introduces modern attributes and symbols into these historical presentations.

  

• THIS GLORIOUS LIFE

  

• THIS GLORIOUS LIFE

  

• THIS GLORIOUS LIFE

  

• THIS GLORIOUS LIFE

  

Graeme Williams

• DREAM TIME IN BREATHLESS SPACES

  New shopping malls are shooting up in the suburbs of Johannesburg like mushrooms. Large tracts of nature have to give way for constructions of concrete and steel. These offer residents of the neighbourhood access to a choice selection of consumer goods. At the same time they are deprived of their access to their familiar natural surroundings. Of necessity social life now plays itself out against the background of the malls, with their neon lights, Muzak and glittering advertising signs. Graeme Williams (b. 1941) photographed in them off the cuff, in order to reflect the capricious and unnatural character of these modern shopping malls, exemplars of progress.

  

• DREAM TIME IN BREATHLESS SPACES

  

• DREAM TIME IN BREATHLESS SPACES

  

• DREAM TIME IN BREATHLESS SPACES

  

• DREAM TIME IN BREATHLESS SPACES

  

Donovan Wylie

• BULGARIA

  In Bulgaria too, one of the thirteen countries nominated for entry into the European Union, many young people appear to already want to experience a down-payment on the new status of their land. They purchase all sorts of luxury brand name articles, causing the face of this former Eastern bloc nation to undergo a metamorphosis.

  

• BULGARIA

  

• BULGARIA

  

• BULGARIA

  

Danwen Xing

• disCONNEXION

  n the present information age nothing appears so old-fashioned as a computer. The southern Chinese province of Kwantung, around Hong Kong, is one of the places where discarded electronic apparatus is dismantled. More than 100,000 people recycle waste computers there from countries such as Japan, South Korea and the United States, sometimes working under dreadful conditions.
  
  Travelling back and forth between the land of her birth and the West, Danwen (b. 1967) saw how increasing Western influences stimulated the economic development of China, but also the massive social inequality and environmental problems this caused. Through the aesthetic of her photographs Danwen isolates her subjects from their social context and in doing so emphasises the underlying conflict between modernity and tradition.

  

• disCONNEXION

  

• disCONNEXION

  

• 

• disCONNEXION

  

Patrick Zachmann

• ARGENTINA 2003

  The crisis in Argentina, consequence of a faltering economy and the strict demands of the World Bank, affects rich and poor alike. Yet the consequences for the two groups differ. Particularly at night the contrast between the two parallel worlds becomes visible. In Buenos Aires the youth from wealthy families indeed must keep a tight grip on their expenditures, but they can still party until deep into the night. A stone's-throw away the cartoneros (cardboard collectors) rummage for old paper and glass. What they earn from it is hardly enough for one meal a day. In daylight hours aid organisations therefore distribute extra food.

  

• ARGENTINA 2003

  

• ARGENTINA 2003

  

• ARGENTINA 2003

  

• ARGENTINA 2003

  

Various photographers

• THE GRINGO PROJECT

  In an attempt to escape the West, the Russian/ American photographer Bezzubov (b. 1965) travelled from the Himalayas to the Amazon basin. But everywhere he encountered the West again, in the form of fast food restaurants, brand name products, cinema advertising, and especially in the form of tourists, in search of places and cultures that had not yet been corrupted by 'modern times' - still in an untouched state which they themselves were helping to destroy. THE GRINGO PROJECT (1997-2001) is a series of portraits of people in places where they really don't belong.

  

• THE GRINGO PROJECT

  

• THE GRINGO PROJECT

  

• THE GRINGO PROJECT

  

• THE GRINGO PROJECT