Each of Ming Smith's photographs carries a special energy signature. Her images transfix: they are full of sound and light vibrating on the cusp of pure feeling. They have within their subtle makeup, among other things, ointment and resin and sandpaper. When more than one of the photographs inhabits a room, as in Smith's new MoMA "Projects" exhibition that opened today, the air becomes very dense, finely knit with alchemical play. The lifecycle of a Ming Smith image is freer than the fact of its "taking". Rather it's as if to get that shot in the dark, inside deep fission or balm or haze, she keeps the camera there in wait—subjects continue breathing—for us to visit with and for the photographed to stay in being.
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