Snapshots of Detroit are a trendy fascination at the
moment. Actually any photographs are fascinating, for a while at least. But
images from a ruined city fascinate because in their graphic directness they
strike a primordial chord that seems held on sustain throughout the current news
cycle. Like pictures of car accidents, they are effective communication. They
hook. With the advent of digital cameras and scanners, gritty images of
struggling Detroit artists are now seen as a new form of urban porn. And by a
lot of people. No surprises, you would think with the Internet.
This new series by Jef Bourgeau peels away at these
layered stereotypes to the extent that, well, the images are just brighter and
more poetic. They are pushed and tinkered toward art, but not at all dragging
their feet. One is still looking at hard core snapshots of a forgotten city, but
perhaps this time in their proper context: without the usual hype and with the
lights turned on.
And yes, this work has been thrown back into the very
public display that these times seem to crave for such invasive acts. Maybe
there is little difference between an artist showing images of city life in a
staged death throe and the actual thing. We seem to be living in an age of
exhibitionism, driven by a compulsion to be "bad" and to display all that makes
us peculiarly so to an unsuspecting, but insatiable, public.
