Elizabeth Gill Lui

This exhibition catalogue is beautifully produced. The beautiful, as well as the beautiful and disturbing and sometimes not so beautiful but disturbing images raise questions that call for more textual discussion than given. What is the usual, necessary or proper relationship between aesthetics as normally conceived in the fine art world and photojournalism? The brief forward assumes that photojournalists seek to get and hold our attention and focus it on situations of social significance. But some of the images here seem to be here primarily for their visual appeal, and some are more ordinary magazine photojournalism. Most seem aimed at visual power over social information or utility. Many of the images here would seem at home in a gallery not devoted to photojournalism or social causes. The book is a visual joy.… (meer)