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BJP (British Journal of Photography)
Candid camera is just for laughs?? Feature: Exposure?
Nobody's perfect. In fact, they're not even close. Nothing is a truer testimony to this than Locusts, a new publication by Russian photographer Sasha Gusov. The book is the outcome of five year's work shot in locations around the world; a catalogue of humanity's faults, divided into eight parts. Justified Means, for example, explores the idea of the tourist behind the camera, while Consuming Passions is about the culture of consumerism, and Last Resorts and Low Costs present people at their weakest moments - when they think no one else is watching.
The images are precisely what you would expect - people consumed with themselves and their surroundings in the most ridiculous of ways; picking their noses, stuffing their faces or sitting in the most unflattering positions. But the impressive part is how intimate the photographs are; how they portray an unexpected closeness with their subjects, exposing them for who they really are even for a brief, unsuspecting moment.
'With a chronicler's zeal, Gusov portrays the emergent creature as a plague on civilisation. Hence the book's title: Locusts,' writes Andrei Navrozov in the afterword.
Yet despite this dark and cynical view of contemporary man, the images actually inspire laughter; they are more humorous than they are revealing of the serious charge the author lays on humanity.
Deborah Sterescu
In print
Locusts by Sasha Gusov, is published by Thames & Hudson (ISBN: 978-0-500-543672), priced £25. For more information visit www.thamesandhudson.com.
Source:
© Incisive Media Ltd. 2009
Incisive Media Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, is a company registered in the United Kingdom with company registration number 04038503
15 October 2008
Nobody's perfect. In fact, they're not even close. Nothing is a truer testimony to this than Locusts, a new publication by Russian photographer Sasha Gusov. The book is the outcome of five year's work shot in locations around the world; a catalogue of humanity's faults, divided into eight parts. Justified Means, for example, explores the idea of the tourist behind the camera, while Consuming Passions is about the culture of consumerism, and Last Resorts and Low Costs present people at their weakest moments - when they think no one else is watching.
The images are precisely what you would expect - people consumed with themselves and their surroundings in the most ridiculous of ways; picking their noses, stuffing their faces or sitting in the most unflattering positions. But the impressive part is how intimate the photographs are; how they portray an unexpected closeness with their subjects, exposing them for who they really are even for a brief, unsuspecting moment.
'With a chronicler's zeal, Gusov portrays the emergent creature as a plague on civilisation. Hence the book's title: Locusts,' writes Andrei Navrozov in the afterword.
Yet despite this dark and cynical view of contemporary man, the images actually inspire laughter; they are more humorous than they are revealing of the serious charge the author lays on humanity.
Deborah Sterescu
In print
Locusts by Sasha Gusov, is published by Thames & Hudson (ISBN: 978-0-500-543672), priced £25. For more information visit www.thamesandhudson.com.
Source:
© Incisive Media Ltd. 2009
Incisive Media Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, is a company registered in the United Kingdom with company registration number 04038503
15 October 2008