Wednesday 10 February 2021

Growing up Travelling

How wonderful!, I thought when glancing through the pages of this book and experienced what I do not recall to have ever experienced when spending time with a photo book showing people: I liked every single one of these photographs, without any reservation. That might have to do with the fact that the ones portrayed are children who are simply themselves and not conditioned to pose.

The foreword of Mary M. Burke, professor at the University of Connecticut and author of 'Tinkers': Synge and the Cultural History of the Irish Traveller' conveys useful historical background, highlights Jamie Johnson's modus operandi and states: "The subjects of Johnson's work challenge our easy assumptions as to what makes a child happy, culturally-assured and free." While I'm not so sure that photographs   these two dimensional reductions of a three-dimensional reality that neither sound nor smell   can do that, the infos that accompany these pics certainly help to see things in perspective. 

For the full review, see here  

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