Laura Hall-Kinzer Llanos
Alex Webb: La Calle, Photographs from Mexico
Exhibit at Aperture
Walking into Aperture I expected another uppity downtown gallery but it was nothing like I expected. Their large selection of photographic books, which they invite the public to sit down and read, is a wonderful display which, in itself, could hold my attention for a whole day. Their display of Alex Webb’s photography is in a bright space, which is kind of ‘U’ shaped with an ‘L’ in the middle to divide the room. The walls go from white to yellow and back again with the dividing wall in a deep crimson. I do not believe the photographs are paired with the colors on the walls so much by content, but by contrast. There are 45 photographs in total in the Alex Webb, La Calle exhibit, (La Calle meaning ‘The Street’), spanning the years 1978 to 2007 capturing the state of Mexico through the years and it’s surrounding cities and villages.
Alex Webb seems to be fond of using shadow to tell parts of his photographic stories. Color scheme also seems important, almost more than composure. Alex Webb also appears to like using photoshop to remove and place elements into his photographs, (although, it seems, others did not see this). The best example of this is in his photograph of a little girl jumping off a diving board into a pool. To me, it seems obvious that the little girl was shopped into this photograph and she appears to be standing in mid-air, however, most people I listened to at Aperture were marveling at how Alex Webb caught ‘the perfect moment’. He caught thirty years of Mexican culture, showing the state of the cities and how people react to their surroundings. As Mexico has been in a horrible state of dilapidation, most of his pictures show this with the people captured doing the best they can. I do not know if he just went more for the morose or if it was a symptom of the surrounding state.
I must admit, I really am not fond of Alex Webb’s work, although he is very talented. His use of shadows and composition tell a strong story. To pick one photograph that most spoke to me, I would have to say, Agua Prieto, Mexico, 2001. It held my attention because of it’s minimalism of composure. Even with that, it speaks volumes.
While you don’t have to like Alex Webb’s work, I am glad that you can see his mastery of high contrast lighting and composition to tell complex stories. He is a photojournalist and as such manipulating a photograph in photoshop is anathema.
The interesting question that you pose is does Webb show Mexico as dilapidated or is it actually dilapidated. Another photographer might also shoot in Mexico but choose to photograph children in modern classrooms, people shopping in malls, high rise apartments, beautiful beaches. A photographer’s selection of subject matter as well as how he or she presents it can be very powerful in that it changes how others perceive things.