When I stepped into the Steven Kasher Gallery, I instantly felt some sort of feeling of foreboding. I could not quite put my finger on it, but I somehow knew that I never if the images I see were uncomfortable to look at, they were important for me to see. Perhaps as a society, it is important for us to acknowledge some of the harsher sides of reality, such as racism, sexism, and poverty, in order to finally offer some sort of solutions for them, respectively. Otherwise, I have realized, nothing will ever change.
Observing Jill Freedman’s exhibit, Resurrection City, felt rather reminiscent of Jacob Riis’ famous work, How the Other Half Lives. In photographing the Poor People’s Campaign in the spring fo 1968, shortly after Martin Luther King’s assassination, conveys a definitive shift in American culture. The nation itself was enduring a rather violence climate; important political figures were getting assassinated, and American had plunged deeper into the controversial Vietnam War. In looking at the photos by Freedman, I suddenly felt a sense of abandonment towards the figures portrayed. It was such a glaring error made the United States government, that they once again had failed to help support the individuals who needed the most support. Although Freedman’s work is almost fifty years old, it is incredibly relevant today, because we still have yet to improve our poverty gap, as well as the rampant racial problem in the United States.
I also felt captivated by the other exhibit, which was Debi Cornall’s Welcome to Camp America, which was a series of photographs of the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison. The images also seemed to make me forget the horrors of “Gitmo”, but soon I realized how isolating each photograph felt. Even the one I posted with this text, which was an image of an empty stadium, made me wonder why this place has lasted so long. In retrospect, it is absolutely important for us as a nation to never forget Gitmo, and to work towards trying to shut it down since it is clearly a violation of human rights, not just constitutional rights.
