Disorder article by Andrea Star Reese
The Urban Cave article by Andrea Star Reese
NY Times Lens Blog interview
 |
| Andrea Star Reese |
 |
| Disorder |
 |
| Disorder |
 |
| The Urban Cave |
 |
| The Urban Cave |
Andrea Star Reese is a photojournalist/documentary photographer working out of New York City whose projects take her all over the world. Originally a filmmaker, she attended the International Center of Photography and was a 2010 Fellow in Photography with the New York Foundation for the Arts; she is currently a reGeneration2 photographer. The multiyear Urban Cave project received the David Pike Award for Excellence in Journalism Photography in 2014; both it and Disorder have been exhibited internationally.
The Urban Cave, the first of the two series, began as a photography school project and turned into a multiyear project on the "long term unsheltered men and women living in makeshift housing in New York City." To make the series, she got to know individuals in the homeless community, earnings, she writes, their acceptance one person at a time. Ultimately, the story is one of resilience and humanity, rather than about deprivation. She writes in more detail and shares more images from the series in the article linked above.
Disorder, a much more disturbing series, documents the state of "care" (or, really, lack thereof) for the mentally ill in Indonesia, which has perhaps 600-800 mental health practitioners, over half of whom practice only in Jakarta. Diagnosis and treatment is virtually nonexistent in most places; even where diagnosis is available, medicines are not. While mental illness still carries a strong stigma, spirit possession and other "supernatural" problems do not, so many people still turn to shamans and other folk healers for remedy. The care individuals receive, regardless of who "treats" them, is horrifying; I've shared some of the less harrowing images here. This is the series discussed in the Lens Blog interview and the article linked above.
For the Urban Cave series, at least, Reese uses 35mm digital prints, and writes that "It is my intention that the photographic style represents the society and the story, both complex, contradictory, surprising, and nuanced." What I love about her work is that her compositions combine intense human narratives (sometimes harrowing, sometimes sad, sometimes happy, always thought-provoking) with beautiful formal elements (light, line, color, texture) to create images that stop me, at least, dead in my tracks and make me spend time exploring each one - even when the image is so horrific that I really want to look away. I can almost imagine being able to photograph homeless communities - I can't even begin to imagine experiencing the kinds of conditions she saw in Indonesia and staying sane. Kudos to Ms. Reese for creating this body of work.
Very touching series indeed. I really admire photographers/ artists who take on such subject heavy content. It makes my heart heavy to see people live like this and makes the viewer want to help them. 'The Urban Cave' photographs have such beautiful composition and lighting for making make them much stronger images. The top portraits as well the lighting is so vivid and strong but also softening the subjects face/bodies at the same time almost. I mean that first photo of disorder the body language is so strong and just gives me this eerie feeling with the lighting and highlights of the hall.
ReplyDeleteI love her lighting on each and one of her photos. Some of her photos give a borderline painting and photo mixture also.
ReplyDelete