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Katy Grannan: The 99/The 9

photo-eye

Katy Grannan is maybe the most compelling photographer I can think of working today.  Not that I'd like to meet her.  Her series always show unusual precision, both in thematic continuity and in the way she callously delves into people's failed lives with a grand sense of impunity. She probably believes it is enough for her or one of her assistants to ingratiate themselves and hand over ten dollars once the shot is in the bag. Maybe it is, for the ends would seem to justify the means.

This recent black and white project is the haul from observations of those impoverished black and white people who occupy California's nowheresvilles.  It is preceded by the familiar stately large format colour portrait work which peters out as she instead looks for - and finds - more fleeting moments of interaction within the frame.  These moments are subtle but somehow electrifying when found in the harsh, bleached American landscape that time has forgot.

There are reminders here of 'passing through' photographers of the 70-80's including an entirely unexpected - and entirely perfect - New Topographics 'Man-altered Landscape' type image that would have looked at home in the Rochester show of that name in 1975.