Lundi 19 Octobre 2015 15:43:14 par Manon Roth dans Expositions

A work of visual art should surely speak for itself. This is increasingly rare in the contemporary art world, which needs and admires verbose explanations. In themselves the Rembrandt-evocative portraits from this series, actually of homeless people, many of them junkies or mad, are visions of Christian mystics: a Christ-like man with piercing eyes, half-hidden in shadow; a pieta Madonna in her grubby knitted hoodie; pre-exorcism Mary Magdalene with raccoon kohl eyes and a fag between her lips; St Sebastian pierced by a syringe instead of arrows—these are the saintly martyrs of old, updated. A young man gazing up at God, a crucifix on a chain dangling from his mouth, has the face of that 20th century martyr of the revolution, Che.

But photographer Andrew McNeill is not romanticising his sitters. Mysticism and insanity are after all not incompatible. Ultimately, these are portraits of divine surrender. A viewer with courage and insight might perceive them as far less tragic than their worldly opposite, the narcissistic selfie.

Andrew McNeil

“Through portraiture I want to convey the humanity of vulnerable people in a positive, aesthetic manner,” says McNeill, “My creative ambition is to seek deep insights into the lives of my subjects, allowing them to present themselves to the camera in low light conditions.”

To produce this impressive series, photographer Andrew McNeill spent a year engaging with homeless people, including sleeping on the streets with them in his hometown of Cardiff, Wales.