Vendredi 03 Août 2012 15:13:22 par actuphoto dans Expositions

Raised in Detroit and Chicago Mark Laita studied photography at the University of Illinois and the Columbia College in Chicago. Already at the age of 15 he discovered his passion for this handcraft. Today Mark Laita counts as a successful and established photographer who runs studios in Los Angeles and New York. Laita travelled across 48 federal states of the USA during the last seven years. Using a 8x10inch camera he took portraits of people who are representative for those states but unique at the same time. These works cumulated in the fascinating photo book Created Equal which will be presented in our gallery for the first time in Europe. The aim of Laita's series is to show that we all are equal to the point to which the environment, the society or just fate form us to what we are now. We see this when watching Laita's portraits which are contrasting and similar at the same time. The contrast is displayed in the dissimilitude of the models: rich and poor, old and young, conservatives and liberals. The similarity arises from the kind of representation: Laita always photographs his models in front of the same background and with identical lighting conditions, by which he creates a distinctive recognition value. Portrait photography has a long tradition. Popular photographers like Edward Curtis, August Sander, Richard Avedon and also Irving Penn dealt with this genre. So how can an artist of the present be able to shoot fascinating and meaningful images? The secret of an expressive portrait is to attract the viewer and to make him want to understand the story of the represented person. The model always takes centre stage and the portrait is solely about him/her. The important aspect of Laita's work is that by using the confrontation of two people he encourages us to search for a connection between them. Created Equal therefore counts as the continuation of well known portrait series such as The North American Indian by Edward Curtis or The American West by Richard Avedon.