"Une Image: Quel Beau"

ingarkrauss
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

This is a photograph by the German artist Ingar Krauss that is currently on display at the Marvelli Gallery in the Chelsea District of NYC (until 02 FEB 08). I discovered it in a review of the exhibition in the New Yorker back in December. And it's just too radiant not to share.

The artist is known for his choice of unusual subjects vis a vis portraits. In 2003/04 he photographed juvenile inmates in Russian prisons. If you want a reason to contemplate such things, a google search of these photographs will take your breath away. This image comes from a series of photos taken of migrant farm workers. Of these images, Krauss explains, “Every year thousands of harvest hands come and go like birds of passage. The portraits of migrant seasonal workers show the internal dynamics of a recent migration. They have traveled long distances to work in Germany. The photographs are taken in the fields or in the evening in front of their shacks. They are the people who facilitate our affluent society and who contribute to it in a fundamental way." How much Germany (and Europe) is becoming like California (and the United States) is an ironic under-current in this exhibition.

Contemplate the image offered here: “Untitled: Klaistow”. It could as easily been “Untitled: Barstow,” or “Fresno,” or “Marshalltown.” And yet it is essentially even more than merely a social statement. It's a work of art. Peer into the subject: his face so angelic and his stare almost demonically transfixed upon us. His shoulders are muscular and youthful, while his hands display the swollen deformations of a pitiless manual life.

And consider his attire, particularly the apron. Its pattern of stain and filth seem to form an almost abstract landscape worthy of Turner or Moran -- a work of art within a work of art, a curious echo of the whole image. It's really one of the most stunning photographs I've seen in a long time.