I found Okwui Enwezor’s essay on Lorna Simpson to be very informative and interesting. Even though some concepts of Lorna’s art I did not quite understand completely I got the just of her ideas. Throughout the essay I felt that there was constant upbringing about racial issues that were analyzed through her work which distracte from her original motifs and motives in her work.
In the first passage I was relieved to read that Simpson “embarked on a trip of discovery” because during that era I felt that not many photographers were going out and taking photographic moments, instead majority of the professional field was more interested in creating their own image than searching for it. By traveling all over the world Simpson was able to capture culture without necessarily being involved or as Enwezor said “working around the edges of her subject”. Because of her acceptance of worldly knowledge she was able to adapt to different cultures see an image in everyday traditions.
Another concept of Simpson’s work that I found very interesting was not of her images but her use of language and words to influence. Enwezor’s describes the different sensations of seeing and speaking as contradictions. Anyone one could look at an image and create their own subtitles or story of what is being presented but then looking at the text that is given provides a different perspective and conflicts what one wants to believe. They are “separate forms of knowing “that can trigger a memory that will make one relate to the image.
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"artists control over the process of image making." This writing by Enwezor was a really interesting read and the part that I found the most interesting and unique was the discussion about the photographer and the subject. "The struggle for pwer and control over the scene of representation makes the simple plot of this photograph an ambivalent one." I thought that it was an interesting take on photograohy to analyze a photograph and attempt to see if the subject is aware of the comera, the reaction, if the photographer has the right to take the photograph of them? I also thought that her shift to taking more of the documentary photography was intriguing. Also the authors analysis of documentary photography as a whole and the way in which photographers sometimes appear to go numb to the pictures they are taking and begin to merely take them to get the photo. The discussion on race and the way in which she used race somewhat confused me becasue i wasnt sure what he was arguing and what exaclty her point was. But overall I really enjoyed this piece of writing and the analysis the author did of her photography. i knew nothing about Simpson, and I now I feel as if I can hear her, giving a narrative on her own life while the images scan by.
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