Documentary photography has an invaluable and irreplaceable value because it records the truth; it is a testimony that shows reality. Currently, it is available at the Visualizer festival
This year's Visualizer, International Festival photography, he started exhibition which has already impressed the world - Exodus, by the famous photographer Nicolas Philippe Rosseau.
Since 2018, Rosso has been documenting the journeys of migrants from Venezuela, through Colombia and Central America, to the border with the United States of America, recording a poignant chronicle of their struggle, losses and the hope of people forced to leave their homes in search of a better life. Exhibition Exodus it is the result of his desire to initiate concrete changes with photography. He succeeded in this when in 2021 the Colombian government passed a special decision guaranteeing Venezuelan migrants access to health care, education and the market.
His photographs are a document, they are unforgettable. From November 20 to the end of the Visualizer, until December 9, they were exhibited in the Museum of Applied Arts in Belgrade, one of the spaces where the festival takes place.
The title of this year's 12th Visualizer is "Re-creation of vision: Let's look at photography with new eyes" and explores the complex role of photography in shaping collective reality, values and emotions.
Because everything we know about the world, we saw first.
Documentary photography has an invaluable and irreplaceable value because it records the truth; it is a testimony that shows reality. But that doesn't mean it's without bias. Although photography carries the authority of truth, photographers are always at the crossroads between art and reality, shaped by aesthetic demands and personal perspectives.
That's why someone else's hand, when it clicks with a phone or a camera, shapes everything we know about the world. It allows us to see what we have not experienced with our own eyes: the horrors of wars, the beauty of distant landscapes, vanished and newly created cities, intimate moments of other people's lives.
Soon after its creation, photography acquired the authority of truth because it was considered a craft, a technological means of reproducing reality. And we, overwhelmed by images, buried by visual information that shower us from the media and social networks, lazily accept what is offered to us, forgetting that none of those photos are neutral - ideologically, psychologically, politically, aesthetically. Namely, with or without an artistic attitude, each photographic representation carries the perspective of its author, the aesthetics of the moment, the ethical dilemma of the one who chooses what will be shown. That is why the neutrality of photography, its authority over truth and the authority of truth, is always (and) only an illusion. Photography has never been without manipulation, it is inherent in it. On the one hand, it is a document, an undeniable testimony of the moment. On the other hand, the result of the photographic process is a choice, an interpretation, always a production, never just a reproduction of reality.
Also, since its inception, photography has been a tool of manipulation. She often found this purpose in state-building and ideological struggles. In modern marketing, photography is a powerful tool used to shape brand identity and create an emotional connection with the audience. Through carefully designed visual messages, values and ideas are communicated that the audience unconsciously absorbs, while photos in advertisements and campaigns often become synonymous with values and aspirations.
Then, photography was often compared to painting, so it desired the prestige of art. Because, in the process of creating a photograph, there is undoubtedly a choice: shot, exposure, composition, therefore, there are aesthetic as well as technological dilemmas that cause photography to go through an identity crisis.
In any case, no photo is made twice. That's why, despite the noise, photography remains the most powerful tool for understanding the world and communicating with it - but only if we know how to use it, read it and talk about it.
The Visualizer Festival, with its panels on the topics determined by this year's title, will be the place for that.
Except for Nicola Philip Ross and his exhibition Exodus, we also highlight the exhibition of the American war photojournalist Nicole Tang. She explores the delicate and painful moments of transition – the fragile space between the end of conflict and the return to peaceful life. The photographs show the aftermath of the Islamic State's rule in Iraq and Syria, highlighting how the legacy of war shapes people's everyday lives and lays the groundwork for future conflicts.
Norwegian photographer Andrea Gjestvang, Swiss photographer Mario Heller and young Dutch photographer Prins de Vos are guests of the festival.
The visualizer reminds that photography today must find its primary function again - not as an infallible witness of reality, but as a space for dialogue.
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