Review of Landskrona Foto Festival
Miriam Charlie's blurry polaroids lead the way in “Mother country”. A selection worthy of a photo festival choice, but the artists deserved a better introduction.
When there is a photo festival in Landskrona, there is often a photographer who acts as an anchor in the myriad of expressions, reminding us why someone is working with photography in the first place. This year it is Australian photographer Miriam Charlie.
Her series of blurred polaroids of landscapes and portraits taken during a trip to the Northern Territory town of Borroloola, reminds us of how the Polaroid is both spontaneous and informal, and also about what is important. The series is complemented by a short documentary film in which she shows us around the village and tells us about the substandard living conditions, the disregard of the authorities and why she started taking photographs.
This year's festival doesn't quite feel like the carnival it usually is, in a good way. This is partly due to the breadth of expression - far from everything is pictures of cradles - and the fact that traditional documentary photography does not dominate. Miriam Charlie is shown in the very fine group exhibition ‘Mother country’ at Tyghuset
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The quality is high this year, but I would have liked to hear from the organisers: why are the images important? Perhaps that's why Miriam Charlie's work stood out, because she talked about just that. Her practice was also a reminder that even if images have the power to stop suffering immediately - as most of us in an age of live-streamed wars daily desire - they can make a difference, not least to the photographer. And that is no small thing.
If there is a divide between photojournalism and art at the festival, art has won this year, but that doesn't mean that the medium of photography is being sidelined. Everything that a photograph can be, from Strand's idea-driven practice to the insight into contemporary Australian photography, has been turned on its head.
This article has been translated to English.
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