Capturing Photographic Art
Curator Joyce Ho and guest curators Yangjun Peng and Jiaojiao Chen have assembled a selection of photography from 10 foreign artists. With one exception, each individual photographer has contributed work from a single series, containing a single artistic concept, from Charles Freger's vulnerable portraits of people in uniform to Camille Vivier's "Hitchcockian" animals. The bite-size nature of each series (around 10 pieces), both prevents the fatigue that comes from looking at a series of disjointed images and frees the exhibition from fidelity to a single idea. It helps that each series is singularly fascinating. The curators did an excellent job of selecting talented and reflective photographers with an eye for accessibility. The grainy monochrome photos of industrial Poland taken by Rafal Milach are at once visceral and ripe with social reflection, making them enjoyable for novice viewers and tenured art critics alike. However, the exhibit is not without its valleys. Julia Fullerton-Batten's teenage girls in miniature surroundings thrives more on novelty than substance, and Jacob Aue Sobol's work is diluted by being the only artist drawing from more than one series. That being said, the highlights far outweigh the disappointments. Leiko Shiga diverges from the pack to present a haunting slideshow that's worth taking a few minutes to sit through. Ashley Gilbertson’s photographs from Iraq are refreshingly devoid of political judgment, leaving viewers' focus entirely on the revealing images of daily GI life and, in particular, a breathtaking image reminiscent of Malcolm Browne's famous photo of a self-immolating Vietnamese monk. Budding photographers owe it to themselves to give Unseen a bit of their time.

Cameron Willard