Seen: I had a dream you married a boy
Who: Valerie Phillips / instagram
Where: Book Marc, Harajuku
When: October 9 - November 5, 2020Valerie Phillips documents young women with a vivid, engaging eye showing their individuality, independence, defiance- and at times, vulnerability- in a way that most male photographers would miss.
Listen- her stuff in this show- another one-on-one session with a young woman- this time swedish model Arvida Byström is extremely now. Not being able to shoot in person, their shoot was over skype with Phillips’ iPhone screenshot function employed as the camera. These images, with their glorious smartphone saturation and wifi-skipping artefacts, were then printed large and matted and framed for the walls of the gallery. I already like the subversity in that- but to add to it are the rows of original prints- affordably priced- along shelves out in the open. No dense MFA paragraphs here, either- the only text is in the form of messaging app exchanges between Valerie and Arvida.
The whole thing shares space with Marc Jacobs Heaven collection shown in a trippy late-90s installation. It’s fun. My friend’s 9 year old daughter loved it. (and the two-headed teddy bears.)
Valerie’s pictures are very much about the present and they make me, a 40 year old white guy, feel like I’m on the outside of an in-joke between her and her subjects and I really, really like that. Heaven forbid photography have to adhere to some tepid “fine art” schematic or even worse, have to appropriately be for everyone, all the time. Her pictures are for her and the ladies in them and then for anyone who wants to feel something from the images. That’s how you do it.
I find the screenshots clever- not as a “concept” but in how she’s doing digital photography “right”. I have zero interest in people with digital cameras laboring to get “film vibes” as if it’s some preset aesthetic. If you want film, then just shoot. film. In art, I’m interested in how true respect of a particular medium- and its “limitations”- results in something that’s not just about what the image is about, but also the way it is about that. So yes, the camera does matter. And here, it’s been employed brilliantly. It’s all very much NOW. Even down to the opening reception with Valerie and Arvida in two different countries talking to a gallery full of masked Japanese fans in Tokyo via Zoom screens. It does not get more 2020 than that.
An accompanying book- including customized copies is available in the gallery / bookstore.