Diane Arbus

Andres Serrano

         

Immersion (Piss Christ), 1987 (original and after attack)

Andres Serrano was raised in a devoutly Catholic neighborhood where religion played a significant part of his growing up. From his first images as an artist, sacred icons and other symbolic elements have been frequenting his tableaux-like photographs. From religious iconography, human subjects, dead animals to more precise elements such as blood (a symbol for passion and violence), urine, milk, semen and later excrement, the artist seeks to convey a sense of dignity to his subjects and to reconcile the sacred and the profane through what Germano Celant termed as “the synthesis of the opposite”, so that “the lower part is in dialogue with the upper part, the human with the divine, the earthbound with the celestial”.

Vincent Rosenblatt

Contempted by the Elite, the carioca Funk – born in the favelas and suburbs – conquested all Brazil; Thousands of youngsters risk their life each week to participate in Baile Funk; more than a rhythm and music, the Baile Funk allows for a generation of cariocas to perform a lifestyle, and express their identity statement and shake the traditional relationship between dominant/dominated through the music and lyrics. Bailes are also a unique place for social mix, where the classes are abolished, even if it’s only for one night! My photographs concentrate specifically on the funk carioca parties (Bailes) that have taken place in the suburban clubs & favelas in and around Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Malerie Marder

Even though clearly addressing Marder in their exchange, I’m tempted to think that the “you” here in fact applies to the viewer, too. The viewer is made complicit in these photographs. The viewer becomes part of… let’s call it the game. It is a game, a clearly very adult game. What makes these photographs so good that it’s not a game the viewer is invited to play. It’s a game she or he is made to play.

Ryan McGinley

New Jersey-born Ryan McGinley studied graphic design at New York’s Parsons School of Visual Arts. In 1999 he sent 100 magazine editors and artists he admired a 50-page book of photographs he had produced on his desktop computer entitled The Kids Are Alright. The book consisted of exuberantly bacchanalian images of his friends in New York City. In these images, fellow artists like Hannah Liden, Dan Colen, Dash Snow and Emily Sundblad masturbate, roll joints, tag walls, and scamper naked in the woods.