Grietje M. Hoogland

At the photographic museum in Stockholm, there was a nice surprise for me. The main exhibition was of fellow Dutchman Anton Corbijn, who we all know for his photographs of famous people. A selection of these photographs was shown, along with stills from his movies ‘Control’ (2007) and ‘The American’ (2010) that were shown on screens at one part of the exhibition space. It was set up in a nice, spacious way. The walls were dark grey and the lights were low, so the attention was completely on the photographs. Corbijn is very good at portraiture, and always shows something of the identity of the person he photographs. He mainly photographs in black and white, and his use of light on the face and the compositions he uses make the photo’s interesting to look at. But of course the biggest fun is to see and recognise the artists on the photos, which is what most people like to do at such an exhibition, and, guilty, I did that as well.

The same set up was used for the exhibition of the Spanish Aitor Ortiz, on the next floor. His photos – it needs to be said – are incredible. He specialised in architecture and works in series. His Destructuras series (2005) for example exists of photos of large buildings, in which repetition plays an important role. With the photographs printed very big, they become a bit ominous. Not a soul is visible, no other forms of life, such as plants or animals: only these massive constructions with unnatural and slight unnerving repetitions exist in this visual world. The quote of Spanish writer-on-art Francisco Javier San Martin that was written on the wall at the entrance makes sense:

“There are many anonymous photographs of famous buildings, for which we value the building, but not the author of the photograph. Aitor Ortiz reverses these roles; here authorship is ascribed to the photographic vision; anonymity to the architecture.”

Indeed the architecture has become anonymous, while Ortiz is starting to rise as an great, well known photographer. It would be a shame if he wouldn’t. The Millau series (2008) are completely different from the Destructuras series. Here he did something interesting: he photographed the seven individual pillars of the very high Millau viaduct in France. We see one pillar on each of the photos, just being there with nothing special in the background. The photos are beautiful to look at, but at the same time it has a sense of solitude that is justified, because who ever notices the pillars of a viaduct?

On the top floor the third and last exhibition was shown: “Surrounded by no-one”, of Margaret M. De Lange. This Norwegian woman shows photos of people ‘surrounded by no-one’, which results in striking, confronting and sometimes shocking images. We see people that have strange body marks, which reminds me of the work of Carla van de Puttelaar, people who are minding their own business: being naked, having intercourse or just breakfast, but also photos of animals. The photograph of the woman on the bathroom floor is exemplary of De Lange’s work, because you start to wonder: what is she doing there? Is she smoking? Is she picking her nose? She is minding her own business, surrounded by no-one.