I first saw this image, titled "Barbie Girl", last spring at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, MA. I was immediately struck by its power. I stealthily sneaked a shot of it with my cell phone camera. I wanted to remember it. I saw it again this past December at the Griffin Photography Museum in Winchester. And again soon thereafter in the Boston Globe, which had it featured in the daily arts and entertainment magazine (link to article here). This image is incredibly arresting in its various elements of contrast. Both stark and rich in black and white, it captures joy and pain; visions of destruction alongside visions of hope: Eastern culture juxtaposed with Western culture. This image has the ability to take its viewer from saddened to heartened and back again.
The artist is Rania Matar. Matar is originally from Lebanon, which is where this photograph was taken in 2006. It is no surprise that this image appears on the cover of Matar's new monograph, Ordinary Lives. I would highly recommend looking further into her work, which tells many fascinating stories.
1 comment:
Take a look at this: What You See & What You Don't: Haiti Earthquake News Images
http://www.frankwbaker.com/haiti_news_photos.htm
Also take a look at my Visual Literacy site:
www.frankwbaker.com/vis_lit.htm
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