Lincoln Clarkes, “Giving Notice”
Recent street works by photographer Lincoln Clarkes, Initial Gallery, Vancouver.
In a time when camera phones have turned ‘everyman’
into a photographer and the ‘selfie’ has surpassed the allure of the portrait,
Lincoln Clarkes’ new series of works, “Giving Notice”, returns this expertise
to the terrain of the skilled photographer.
In this thoughtfully curated show by Julie Lee, culled from a larger
selection of work dating back to 2008, Clarkes turns his lens on the cities and
people of Toronto, Vancouver, and a handful of scenes in Miami, Detroit, and
London. The show’s title, “Giving
Notice”, suggests the movement of city-life itself as it shifts through its
many guises from dressed-up to broken-down.
Bestowing his subjects with a straightforward ease,
Clarkes disguises the true complexity of his compositions—two women sitting in
a laundromat, a group of friends hanging out on a street corner, shots gazing
into and through windows, city-scenes in effect doubling as character–the
sensation is that of a fly on the wall, skirting the uneasy rift between
discovery and that of not-so-innocent onlooker.
 |
| Lincoln Clarkes, Bathurst Streetcar,Toronto, 2010 |
Though presented as off-the-cuff street shots taken in
the spur of the moment, Clarkes captures his subjects with the formality of
portraiture freezing expressions in moments of laughter, boredom, or even in
the split second before detecting the camera’s intrusion. And perhaps that is where the story actually
lies: not in the photos on display but in the larger vignettes the viewer is unable
to see.
Once accused of opportunistic voyeurism, (in
particular, his 2002 series entitled Heroines, works showcasing the poetic yet
grueling portraits of the women of Vancouver’s notorious drug-infused downtown
eastside), “Giving Notice” skews such
criticisms by implicating the viewer in a shared act of observation. Though transparent, the repeated appearance
of windows and glass act as markers reminding the viewer that they, too, are
looking in on these moments of unassuming innocence.
 |
| Lincoln Clarkes, BBC Primetime, London, 2011 |
As pensive and uneasy as Clarkes’ images can make one
feel, placing judgments on the camera’s subjects--how they look, what they’re
wearing, interpreting their class and social standing, or just smiling at their
enjoyment of life—Clarkes sets himself aside as a prolific street photographer.
 |
| Lincoln Clarkes, For Sale, Toronto, 2010 |
Edged with a documentary-feel—for instance an older-model
Cadillac parked against the historical façade of Detroit speaks to the city’s
fading grandeur—the photos convey these relationships vis-à-vis the creative
play of colour and depth (scenic nods to Clarkes’ fashion photo sensibilities),
cropped elements within a scene, and signs, both literal and subconsciously
understood.
 |
| Lincoln Clarkes, Keefer Hotel, Vancouver, 2013 |
To me this is what separates the true photographer from
the orgy of photos let loose across the internet and our surplus of media outlets,
the ability to artfully play with composition and structure across the moving
target of the living cityscape. In the wake of street photography past (Robert Frank’s pivotal works dissecting the American landscape come to mind) Clarkes
weaves together a multi-faceted and complex social narrative much like our
modern world, today. If we, the viewer,
feel guilt for eavesdropping on these unselfconscious moments of human
interaction or repulsed by our sudden judgment calls, Clarkes reminds us of our
culpability—we saw the window and we chose to look in.
Excellent review.
ReplyDeleteThanks! : )
ReplyDelete