Lauren examines two very different but equally engrossing photography exhibitions at the Kingsland Road branch of Flowers.
When we arrive at Flowers on Kingsland Road, the place is heaving, as crowds admire Nadav Kander’s mesmerising photographs taken along the course of China’s Yangtze River. Yangtze – The Long River captures the constant urbanisation of life in modern day China. Kander’s images are magnificent; the extraordinary tonal differences between the muted, dense greys and misty bands of thick fog contrast with the fleshy tones of the people which populate them, the bright touches and hues of their clothing pops against the translucent veil of pollution.
There is a powerful contradiction at play in these profound images which are both epic and suffocating. The sheer majesty of the river surging through the sprawling, ugly urban expanse and the incredible scale of mighty bridges, dams and vertiginous apartment blocks contrasts with the smallness and insignificance of man. The intrinsic, natural beauty of the landscape seems increasingly threatening and both at odds with, yet enhanced by the consequences of modern life. In one image a woman gazes out across the river through hazy smoke trails. The view of the bridge in the foreground and the city beyond is breathtaking and the smog tinges and wraps the vista with a mysticism and beauty. This romance is only somewhat dashed when, on closer inspection, it appears the woman is wearing a mask over her mouth and nose.
Upstairs, Edmund Clark’s series of shots taken from inside the prison camp at Guatanamo Bay throw up a further sense of contradiction and struggle. This time however, it is not the contrast between people and surroundings which evokes a response but the menacing absence and emptiness of the images which suggest a kind of sterile dehumanising effect.
As well as obtaining photographs from inside the camp itself Clark also gained access to the homes of former detainees who are now beginning the process of rebuilding their lives. The effect is difficult and disorientating. The overwhelming normality of images of empty bedrooms with net curtains blowing in the breeze and a rose in bloom suspended in a vase of water sit uncomfortably next to the starkly captured shots of a mobile force-feeding chair, a claustrophobic, fluorescent green isolation unit and a large, close-up picture of an interrogator’s call button, just waiting to be pressed.
Others works are unnerving in the way that very normal set-ups are manipulated. For example a netted exercise court becomes an ‘exercise cage’, hemmed in on all sides and surrounded by a series of fences and a bleak yard behind. Although people are absent from the photographs, the images of life outside the camp in particular become engrained with an inescapable sense of incarceration which, try as we might, is almost impossible to shake off.
Edmunt Clark - Guantanamo and Nadav Kander - Yangtze are at Flowers until 13th November 2010.
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