upper
hand. The photo goes further than registering of time and space, it is not
only the carrier of information, but it suggests a story. A story that takes
place behind the surface of the photograph and in the mind of the viewer
in an imaginary time and place. A dialogue is created between the image and
the viewer that stimulates the imagination. In Wonderland the photographers
retain their open view, untouched by the demands that the market tries to
make on them, and link it to the qualities of a universal, recognisable visual
language. This phenomenon transcends the artificial boundaries between genres
in photography. In this book, photographers from traditionally separate worlds
- the documentary and the conceptual- have been brought together. And still
their work easily flows over in one another, as becomes obvious when Doug
and Mike Starn's 'conceptual' images are placed next to Jun Morinaga's 'documentary'
images. The binding element between the photographers in Wonderland is their
fascination for life itself, with all its complex structures and human relationships.
The photos of Dave Heath and Philip-Lorca diCorcia are thirty years apart
and seem drastically different at first glance. At second glance, however,
the street photos from the sixties deal with the same forlornness as the
photos from the nineties. And how much do David Graham's extravagant Americans
really differ from Kiyoshi Suzuki's circus artists. The photographers in
Wonderland choose to create their own world. They are each working on a personal
document, like a writer of fiction, a poet of images. They are on a search
for the unattainable grip on reality. Another feature of these photographers
is 'nearness': they all choose nearby subjects, with which they are greatly
personally involved. The photos go there where life leads the photographer.
Sometimes the photographs are a reflection of private experiences, sometimes
the– / on to the images from The Geometry of Innocence