Sebastian Friedman – Segurismos

Despite being one of the safer cities in Latin America, the rate of crime in Buenos Aires is going the wrong way and it has people getting a little paranoid. Sebastian Friedman’s series Segurísimos shows people behind bars.

© Sebastian Friedman

© Sebastian Friedman

© Sebastian Friedman

There is a comic element to the photos. I get the sense that the subjects themselves recognize the slight ridiculousness of their self-imposed imprisonment. Also, for anyone familiar with security measures in more dangerous cities like São Paulo or Bogotá, these bars and gates will seem like a bit of a joke.

Friedman has more interesting work on his website, which is cute but annoying [amusing design, lotsa flash].

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BA Photo 2009 – Stuff I liked

On Thursday afternoon I went to Palais de Glace to check out the annual photography show. Buenos Aires Photo brings together about 30 art galleries that specialize in photography. Most are local altho there was a scattering from Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Spain. Like all art shows, it’s a little overwhelming to take in. Here’s a few photos that I liked:

Ezequiel Suranyi is an Argentine based in the UK. Most of his work is based around soccer. He had a few black and white images that had a real joy and charm to them.

Impressive images of Peru’s Carretera Sur by Hans Stoll.

From Laura Glusman’s series of plants. This is a very commonly used plant in apartment building lobbies here in Buenos Aires and I’ve been kind of fascinated with plans here recently so I enjoyed seeing the work of another photographer with a similar obsession.

Charlie Mainardi is a well known advertising photographer in Buenos Aires who was at the fair with an eponymous gallery showing his artistic works. The style is very much consistent with the advertising “look”. It’s not a look I’m too enthusiastic about but I enjoyed the content, photos of run-down Buenos Aires.

Mercedes Soledad Manrique’s photo was one of the selections in the Petrobras contest. This is a detail of the photo which shows two old women in a warmly lit interior. She doesn’t seem to have a website but I found this post on Guillermo Ueno’s blog Tosto.

Another selection from the Petrobras contest is this photo by Sebastian Friedman showing wealthy and upper middle class Argentine families with their domestic servants. The idea strikes me as a little too obvious but this photo is a joy to look at. I especially love the dad’s wry smile as his mother-in-law [I wonder?] lies on her death bed.

Puerto Rican photographer Tristan Reyes from his series Domingueando en La Perla.