Immobile Subjects

Photography as an art is often times misunderstood. It may not jump out of the frame like a painting does. But it definitely has its perks.At Columbias' Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), Bettina Hoffmann and Florian Slotawa show that perk, can be compelling, thought provoking even eerie.

In Hoffmanns' piece, "La Ronde," a 12 minute dvd, the audience is exposed to a variety of scenes depicting real life through staged scenarios. Scenes like the Breakfast scene showcase a believable family portrait. We see the family sitting at the table, each looking to have their own role, the father, mother, first son, the second oldest daughter, third son then the youngest son. The room is naturally lit and instead of Hoffmann filming the family engaging with each other or even eating, she instead breaks the scene down into a series of stills, like one big rotating photograph. As the artist puts it, the camera circles around the periphery of people traveling through space, and the surrounding objects within a photograph.

With the first scenario being the breakfast scene, we get a glimpse of this normal looking family. Their lives are up for public scrutiny even the environment they’re housed. How come there’s little food on the table? Or how come the daughter has a look of distain on her face, as she holds the pen in her hand? Her face is anxious about something. The youngest child is literally passed out on the table. We see someone in deep thought. The mother, with semi-dark shadows under her eyes and the guy at the end of the table with his hands folded midair under his chin. Why is the son sitting beside the father starring at him with unease? However the fathers’ look is stoic. Going around the table at first glance it looks like your average family breakfast.

The audience no doubt takes on the roll of director or peeping tom, as the camera navigates through a scenery of objects and even human subjects that are frozen in time. Hoffmann calls her human subjects static objects. Because they are living beings within the piece, unnaturally imitating the always motionless objects that are so to speak, "just there." They take on the likeness of objects and formulate a sort of disconnectiveness to the supposed structured family and it fits. What should the modern family look like? Hoffmann raises questions, about her subject matter and through her stills.

As the camera slowly rotates from left to right, it not only takes the viewers focus off of one person to another but it in fact opens up the space, so that we are allowed to see more than just the static objects. We see their environment, thus things like what they drink or what look they have on their faces become even more intriguing. The rotation process in its own mind is a bit redundant, but it gets Hoffmanns' job done, giving the piece a narrative appeal. The low almost ambient sounds accompanying each piece within the video, gives it a dramatic maybe even a slight theatrical undertone. It's no wonder she used film to showcase her photography then just take snapshots. She changes our way of seeing.

With Florian Slotawas',"Hotel Europa,"on the other hand his photographic approach may seem normal at first glance, but there's a definite spin. Just as Hoffmann he opens up the two-dimensional surface, except he creates individualized compartments of livable habitat. His subject is the space itself and within that space he proves that dimension is ever present. Given the look of his pieces, it may seem odd. Because each picture looks to be the same thing (just as with Hoffmanns rotations) but with each new photograph a new aspect of what the bigger picture represents becomes clearer. Unlike Hoffmanns piece, Slotawa allows connection. It may seem redundant, look blah but it allows for us to reevaluate ourselves and these objects that create dimension to our spaces.

His sculptures look like mini houses, cubicles, cave like dwellings or even childhood fortresses. Slotawas' mini homes are created within larger spaces using furniture , personal belongs, found objects and even furniture from hotel rooms to create makeshift sculptures.

Both Hoffmann and Slotawas' pieces have a PhotoDimensional appeal, given the relationship between sculpture and photography. Within their pieces the viewers perspective is constantly challenged. One in a cinematographic way and the other more simple; but no doubt both artists truly give life to the immobile subjects within these fixed moments in time.