Larry Chatman
© Larry Chatman
About The Exhibition
Curator: Roberto Muffoletto
This exhibition presents two bodies of work by Larry Chatman: The Bar and Where "we" Live. The videos included provide an enhanced experience through the voice of Chatman speaking to his work and to photography in general.
Being a "black" photographer Larry Chatman was able to provide an experienced, cultural perspective, unavailable to "white" photographers. For the VASA member, reading these images from a different cultural experience, race in many communities (not all) in the USA is still an issue. Racial lines in many cases follow economic lines defining life possibilities or impossibilities.
The Bar and Where “we” Live are emblematic in that they present real people in real situations. Each provides a semiotic and reference to the human condition as seen through Chatman.
At one level his work lies within the documentary paradigm, on another his images make a political and personal statement concerning institutional racism in the United States. Collectively his images and video statements nudge you the viewer to ask “why”.
© Roberto Muffoletto, 2016
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On VASA Exhibitions:
VASA Exhibitions over the years have provided a platform for individual and group exhibitions, collaborative exhibitions with various organizations and galleries and exhibitions that follow a particular theme or inquiry such as “Where Do We Go Now” curated by Rui Cepeda and the “Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics” curated by Igor Manko.
VASA Exhibitions are international and multicultural. The curatorial team has strived to present work that not only represents the photographers but also the social, historical and cultural. As an online international project, VASA works to engage various digital tools. Video, as an example, not only offers the potential for the presentation of works, it provides the opportunity and framework for the voice of the author to be seen and heard. Through image, text, sound and animation, VASA works to expand the exhibition paradigm and provide a rich experience for the viewer (as well as the author).
VASA Exhibitions provides a viewing and research environment by archiving all of the exhibitions in their entirety. For example, the viewer may view a 2009 exhibition as it was presented and not just traces of its existence.
VASA Exhibitions (a program in VASA) includes images, videos and sound works.