Host Gallery 1 Honduras Street EC1Y 0TH London Royaume-Uni
Tuesday 24 November 2009, 7pm
News just in: Magnum photographer Christopher Anderson will talk at HOST on the publication of his new book Capitolio, set in Venezuela.
"I sometimes imagine Caracas as a living breathing animal. Obscured by the darkness it appears both violent and sensual, but perhaps it's true nature will only be revealed at the moment it devours me." - Christopher Anderson
Capitolio (published by Editorial RM 2009) is a journey through Caracas, Venezuela, at a time of intense change, a period which is underreported in the western media. The work depicts a complex vision of Caracas, its beauty and its chaos, as Anderson charts the turmoil and popular unrest in a country troubled by conflict.
"The word ‘capitolio’ refers to the domed building that houses a government," says Anderson. "Here, the city of Caracas, Venezuela, is itself a metaphorical capitolio building. The decaying Modernist architecture, with a jungle growing through the cracks, becomes the walls of this building and the violent streets become the corridors where the human drama plays itself out in what President Hugo Chavez called a 'revolution.'"
Anderson (born Texas, 1970) started his photography career in the photolab of the Dallas Morning News and now works as a reportage photographer covering issues such as the economic crisis in Russia, Afghan refugees in Pakistan and more recently the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia. Anderson has received the Kodak Young Photographer of the Year Award, the Robert Capa Gold Medal and was nominated to Magnum in 2005. He currently lives in New York.
Capitolio will be available to purchase and for signing on the night.