ALEX TURNER

ARTICLE | artfocus.com

Contact 2004: the crucial vantage point

The works of Alex Turner and Pat Fleisher

By Susan Johnston

The point of you afforded the spectator in documentary photography is that of all-knowing. This omnipotent vantage point is related to that of classical realism found in the 19th century novel, which works to cement society’s existing narrative. The work of two urban photographers in CONTACT 2004, Toronto’s 8th Annual Photo Festival, recognize the need for change of this position to address deep-seated assumptions. How that is accomplished is revolutionary. Using strategies akin to the funhouse mirrors at the carnival, photo-artist, Alex Turner and Pat Fleisher manipulate the photographic image of the urban landscape, each creating a distinctly different vantage point for the spectator.

Alex Turner‘s photographs render a complete revolution of his viewing space to a flattened version, as a two-dimensional world map transforms the three-dimensional earth from a 360° sphere to a 180° representation. Strip malls, the Bloor, viaduct, variety stores and parking lots are shown in this seemingly impossible panoptic view. This radically altered arrangement of the horizon is complicated by the fact that it is not immediately apparent to the viewer that this is a transformation of what has been seen by a complete turn of the head/camera.

Essentially it is evident that something is very different, but the normal processes and benchmarks to decipher the sense of the space in the photograph are not adequate. Perhaps, unless one is told that this is a flat version of a visual revolution it may never be apparent. Certainly the viewer’s ability to interpret this work from a literal point of view is curtailed opening up other possibilities. As spectators we are no longer in charge, all-knowing, when confronted with this dislocated and interrupted view.

With this strategy, Turner in affect mirrors, not only the unreality of the photograph, but of the surrounding world and our dislocation from it. There is a sense in which this is “a landscape whose construction by culture is made explicit“ as Deborah Bright wrote. To compound this sense of the hyper-real the horizon is presented in a very defined and limited format. With dimensions of 35“ x 2.5“, it is almost like peering through a mail slot in the door. The contrast of the full and the restricted speak to an experience of the city.

This theme extends throughout the work in choice of subject matter, malls with almost deserted parking lots—in a banal form of plenty there is nothing. The photos present an opportunity for the viewer to pick through these offerings laid bare….

By focusing on the viewpoint of the spectator and by analyzing the nature of that view afforded by photo-artists Turner and Fleisher, it is possible to dig into the meaning of the photographs. As such, it is an entry point for consideration of cultural assumptions, and questioning of notions of the urban landscape. This analysis of viewpoint offers a chance to look at a type of great divide, artists who offer up the reins of power, and those who have relinquished them.