“In the place of the terrible butterflies” is a photograph of a man standing by a tree surrounded by what appear to be exotic flowers. Take a second look, and they’re not flowers but pig ears that the photographer, Jamie Maxtone-Graham, has carefully placed in the landscape. Graham’s show, “The Desiring Garden,” at Kathmandu gallery is of a body of work shot in the public spaces of Hanoi, Vietnam that investigates the fabricated environment.
Jamie would go out armed with fruit, vegetables and various animal bits from the market that he would use to transform Hanoi’s green spaces into Tableau vivant. In these new natural/unnatural environments, he would wait, outfitted only with his camera, a portable battery-powered flash and a charming smile. As people would wander past they’d often stop to investigate these odd apparitions and Jamie would invite them in. The photographs that result from these encounters are lush: filled with rich greens, fleshy pinks and hints of discord.
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While talking to Jamie, a thin gangly man with a twinkle in his eyes and a quick wit, I asked him about his inspirations. He brought up Henri Rousseau, a French painter from the 19th century who famously painted scenes of jungles and beasts (mind you he himself had never been to these places.) “I was interested in these painting of things he’d never seen,” says Jamie. His own work plays on the allure of the exotic and the impulse to image as well as create it.
Not all of Jamie’s subjects are strangers that were lured into his worlds, some are of his wife and daughter. The only nudes are of his wife, reclining with the shining moon of her pregnant belly proudly displayed and with a skinned beast at her feet. Another of his daughter, an early work in the project, shows her perched on a vintage motorbike, head cocked, gaze to the side, toes grasping the edge of the bike for balance.
These moments, gazes and compositions hearken back to a tradition older than photography. It seems as though Jamie is looking more at rich oil paintings and still lives than at contemporary photographs. In this he is seconded by Cathy Opie, her recent body of work in Venice was based on Renaissance painters and their control of light. Jamie’s work holds a stillness and directness that is not often found, and generally only comes from intense thought and concentration.
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Kathmandu itself is an old house that was converted into a gallery. It exudes warmth – when we walked into the opening we were greeting with full table and a collection of smiles. The gallery is run by Manit Sriwanichpoom who made a name for himself as a photographer with, among other things, a body of portraits of the ‘Pink Man.’ He traveled the world photographing Sompong Thawee clad in a magenta suit pushing a shopping cart of the same vivid hue. Images from that body of work and from Manit’s travels are displayed downstairs while Jamie’s work inhabits the upstairs. Stop in some time and spend some time with both bodies of work.
Kathmandu Photo Gallery is at 87 Pan road (near the Indian Temple), off Silom road, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500 THAILAND.
Five minutes walk from either Surasak or Chong Nonsi skytrain stations.
Tel : (66) 02-234-6700
http://www.kathmandu-bkk.com
