klearcoat-digitaldaze

Amber Watts

"It Wasn't so Funny This Time"

Inkjet print 8x8

This image struck me first due to the emotional content and the textural quality.

It is presented as a square black and white image with a slight sepia tone. There are scratches and flaws apparent on the image that look intentional. It is obviously staged but still has a spontaneous emotive quality. It is a square format which refers to a certain type of film, usually or a ceratin camera sometimes. There is a person pictured from the chest up screaming and caught in this act. The figure could be male or female it is abit vague. The emotion and the scream are not vague but very intense. When one pulls back from the drama you realize there is some sort of curtain , alluding to the possibility that this could be staged. There is also some sort of mask which lends to the theatricality as well.

I like the rawness of the style and the feel. There seems like the artist is risking a part of herself, assuming this is a self-portrait, perhaps it is not and is just a model or a real person with emotional problems. This images raises many questions for me which keeps me interested.There seesm to be some sort of emotional reaction occurring in this photo.

There is resemblance to Joel Peter Witkin's textural style. The square format also reminds me of Diane Arbus's work. The reference tot he "insane or hysteric" also lends to Arbus and Witkin.The slight blurring captured due to the motion of the subject adds a sense of distorted time and a sense of confusion, which both add to the emotional impact of this shot. The empathetic viewer could feel what is being expressed here as a direct result of the image construction.While the sepia tone are reminiscent of vintage photography there is a timeless quality here.

This image has done well to capture not only our visiual interst but our emotional curiosity as well. As humans, most of us excluding sociopaths, have an innate ablility to have an emotional and physical response to the witnessing of pain or suffering of another human individual. This is why documenatry photography has been such a catalyst for so many. This image by Amber Watts challenges this ability within us. She creates a "stage" and an "action" of which we are unsure the "realness". We as viewers are torn between sympathy for the tortured soul on the other side of the camera while we are also questioning the authentic quality of the work. The textures and tone refer to the photographers place in the history of photography and remind us that all exist in context not in a vacumm. I have not mentioned the title of this work because it adds a whole new layer. I believe one of the powers of photography is too communicate beyond words in a different language. While i see the importance and whit of titles in a intial pure impression in this case i chose not to comment. Although her titel is quite intrigueing.