When revolutions are exotic. Michael Christopher Brown (Magnum Photos) and the Lybian revolution, 2011
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Fotocinema.2018.v0i17.5112Keywords:
Photography, United States, Lybia, Arab springs, Photobooks, Autobiography, Bildungsroman.Abstract
Michael Christopher Brown is a US photographer who went to Lybia in 2011 in order to meet and document the Lybian Revolution. He published his images in a 2016 book, Lybian Sugar. In it, he tried to overcome the limitations of the traditional photo documentary —practiced in Western countries since the Spanish Civil War— by using an amateur camera —the iPhone— and an autobiographical narrative form of his experience there. I argue that the ethical position that emerges from the work remains deeply ambiguous despite the qualities of the book and the photographer’s skill. More broadly, I argue that the book is representative of a trend in contemporary Western photography which finds it difficult to go beyond a post-colonial auctorial stance, despite sincere efforts to the contrary.
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