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| Image Credit: Untitled, from the series This is not a House, 2009 © Edgar Martins. Courtesy the Artist |
Edgar Martins' This is not a House is a collection of photographs which he initially took as a photo-essay for the New York Times. The series is a reflection of the plummeting house market in the United States, which were taken in 6 various states on 16 different locations. Although this body work was originally commisioned for the New York Times, it ended up having to depict its impact, not only on the American market, but also on the entire world, presenting it as a full blown financial crisis.
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| Image Credit: Untitled, from the series This is not a House, 2009 © Edgar Martins. Courtesy the Artist |
The artist gained access to his locations because most of them were abandoned therefore anyone could walk through with ease. Due to this, he was able to capture the full extent of what was going on and not limit himself to what he could take a shot of and take as much time as he needed to do so. Some of the photographs that he was able to capture, took him hours to set up, as some of them were taken during dusk with hour-long exposures. Most of the subjects of his images present abandoned houses, apartments, office buildings, golf courses and empty rooms. And within those, he aimed and achieved to showcase the neglect those places suffered from through the ruins embodied in them. He did this using subtle yet very dramatic and almost theatrical compositions. And the most fascinating thing about it is that he did not set-up the different scenarios in his photographs because they were already there. All he had to do was capture them in the best way he could possibly can which amazes me the most because he did amazing at doing so.
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| Image Credit: Untitled, from the series This is not a House, 2009 © Edgar Martins. Courtesy the Artist |
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| Image Credit: Untitled, from the series This is not a House, 2009 © Edgar Martins. Courtesy the Artist |
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The representation of the unwanted, neglected and the ugly in a very beautiful manner is what interests me the most about this series. The fact that is also has an underlying reason, a deeper meaning, makes it even more intriguing. I think Edgar Martins did not only demonstrate an ongoing issue that exists around us in both a beautiful and controversial way, but also in an artistical point of view, he was able to exhibit the real form of still life photography and how intricate and amazingly fascinating it is and can be.
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| Image Credit: Untitled, from the series This is not a House, 2009 © Edgar Martins. Courtesy the Artist |
All images were taken in The New Art Gallery Walsall, Exhibition: Edgar Martins This is not a House 30 Sept 2011 - 24 Dec 2011.
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