ISM: Radical Liberalism and Liberal Radicalism

(Street) photography has always captured our imagination. By (street) photography, I mean photography that even if not necessarily at a popularly known status of independent or grassroots origins, uphold a thematic intention of capturing everyday people, notions, and works with an intention of statement or emotion rather than academic training or canonical pedagogy. Bright colors evoke emotions; bold strokes have cause for concern. Perhaps the only uniting factor in all of our responses is: we want more.

Spy Device, 2015. Ellen von Unwerth. Photograph. Source: Artsy.

There are so many cultural habits we have yet to popularize into the mainstream. I choose to see street photography as a sort of Cliffnotes for cultural understanding-- save me the words, give me the deets. I am able to grasp a feeling that I didn't even know existed in me. Let's take a look at some radicalism and of course, liberalism. I see in Unwerth's work a sort of mixed movement, either a radical liberalism or liberal radicalism.

An obsession with the kitsch is understandable to many, I hope. Ellen von Unwerth's Spy Device first captured my attention --more like seized me and left me standing in the middle of a store for five minutes-- in the Taschen bookstore in Köln (Cologne). As the young lady's tongue wagged at me, her wink somehow still fascinating my heterosexual stance, I was left wanting more and immediately started flipping through the photobook.

Although the entire book is worth looking at for the sake of this analysis, Spy Device is special to me in that it is exactly the sentiment I stated earlier. It is radical liberalism and liberal radicalism. It is radical with its unapologetic fetishization, but liberal because it's done by a woman. It is liberal in that it seems to present this sort of re-claimed male gaze (an appropriation of the male gaze, shall we say) but radical in that it defies all socially accepted notions of the subject matters involved: cultural clothing, heritage representation, art, and publications.

If you're not quite getting what I'm getting at, try taking a look at Heimat, the full publication that houses this photo. Tete a Tete is a good example. The entire work is very intra-complementary, giving you an idea of what I mean by an image that left me simultaneously comforted and disturbed, heard and ignored -- and wanting more.

References:

Artsy

Taschen