Joerg Colberg to curate Visa Pour L’image

Everybody knows (and behind his back everybody says) that one of the problems with the Visa, Festival of Shanty Towns, is that it only has one curator, and as time ticks on more and more people are turning blue trying to squeeze into the narrowness of that curator’s mind. (that may sound a bit tough,but isn’t it about time someone actually said it?)

I have just finished reading Jörg Colberg’s terrific interview with Ivor Prickett (on Conscientious Extended).

Something struck me.

J F Leroy could really give photographers something to talk about, and the public something different to look at, by inviting Colberg to curate some shows. We might even get introduced to the kind of work that will make you forget all the tedious discussion about the death photojournalism. Work like Ivor’s; a young photographer not dreaming of a warzone.

JC: This might be a stupid question, but maybe there’s something to be gained from being stupid. In this day and age, where photographs are so ubiquitous, and where many people are so cynical about photos, how does one make people care about what’s being shown in photographs? So that, just to make that connection, the photographs will have an impact?

IP: I’m not really sure how other photographers go about doing this, but for me I try to engage viewers by photographing the very ordinary every-day routines that people living in extraordinary circumstances still have to go through in order to survive. By presenting people with situations and emotions that they can relate to I hope to draw them in and allow them to put themselves in my subjects’ shoes, no matter how foreign or exotic their lives may be. So instead of trying to shock someone into caring, I am hoping to communicate people’s stories in a more subtle and engaging way.

DO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE