Zoe Leonard Works – Analogue Photo Series

Introduction

Zoe Leonard has been very creative in her photography art though her works were ignored for quite sometime before they begun gaining recognition. Her works are critical in assessing the disappearing face of the 20^th century lifestyle of the urban centres. They also highlight the increased obsolescence that non-digital photography is presenting. Leonard’s ‘analogue series’ trail the layered, tattered and eccentric beauty that is fading away from life today. Her works are a compilation of fading away face and texture of the urban way of life as it is evident on shops and other retail stores. As they lack the glamour that is found in modern shopping malls like new digitally operated functions and catalos, these disappearing objects obstinately hold onto their dying position on the streets. Having realized that the advent of digital technology has totally changed the conventional urban lifestyle, Leonard tries to protect and conserve the photographic sphere of the analogical photography.

Analogue Series

Photography has a very unique characteristic than many of thither art forms. This is the ability to reproduce physical data in a similar image. ‘Analogue’ is therefore a testimony of the disappearing city shop fronts, storefronts and also to the threatened status of photographic art itself¹. An important work is that photography of the globalization phenomenon- global rag trade. Leonard took a photo of discarded clothes shipped clearing station in her hometown, Brooklyn. The works indicates the twenty-first century trajectory of products in the social-economic sector – clothes – which connect people globally.

Globalization theme

Analogue series was shot from 1998 to 2007. Her works initially comprised of diverse selections of moribund shop and storefronts in her hometown. She later expanded her scope to Asia and even Africa. The clothing industry was of particular interest to her in early times of here career. She had seen prominent cloth lines like Gap, JCrew and Old Navy among others grew very fast and soon the stores were full with worn goods. She was particularly fascinated that these goods were ready to be shipped top other parts of the world- Africa and Asia; Her interest to trace the dispersed products across the world begun here. In Uganda 2004, she was able to witness how disposed of western gods were embraced by African culture.

There are several advertisements on the roadsides in east Africa that fascinated her so much as she saw handwritten signage of product from the west like coca cola ads on shops. This was an evidence of the fact that consumer goods were being produced from somewhere else and used in a different location; the trade was taking place via a complex system of exchange. Though the interpenetration of the multinational marketplace might imply that a hegemonic consistency is gradually displacing the idiosyncratic expressions specific to indigenous cultures, Leonard notes that there was enough evidence that there were light-hearted and dissident forms of resistance. For instance the reduced prices ad she pictures at her local butcher shop reduced price, improvised Kodak billboards in Africa among others.

Leonard’s Objectivity

Analogue series does not have any pictures of people, this absence is very critical to Leonard sensitivity as they could have made the photographs to become anecdotal. Rather, the presentation of second-hand shoes and other clothing expressively signify humanity. The old clothes when on to have new autonomous identities in a manner people cannot – the identities are described as being common. The distinction between shod or bare feet, the act of wearing a shirt and the comfort is what all people want.

Another critical part of the analogue is the exhibition of the derroteros and portolans. This smaller version of analogue is an indication of the way information was codified and made standard for use. For instance, shorelines were described in detail in text and the drawings were elevated to show depth of the water together with locations of sandbars and shoals. The portolans reinforced the images of kings of the seas and the water monsters, and estheticized the information into luxury commodities and consumables. Basically these objects not only indicated the way visual information was shaped but they revealed how that shaping became very critical to the way in which foreigners understood environment. For the European, these products were a while new world to them. However, today, the once critical products are regarded as important artefacts and their content long unfashionable. The shift observed in the purpose and comprehension underlies how arbitrary, subjective and transitory information and its worth are to people.

Conclusion

Photography is still the major way through which people record happenings and the way their world is. Finding analogy in her work, Leonard was very assertive of her artistic interest which also inspired her travelogue. Analogue has been described as being unique photography in 21^st century since at has been able to offer a perspective that is equivocally personal and presents subjective truth in time and space.

Reference

Cooke, L. 2008. Zoe Leonard: Derroterro. Dia Art Foundation, Web.

Cultural Politics, 2007. Zoe Analogue. Cultural Politics. Vol.3, No.2. Web.

Geldin, S & Leonard, Z. 2007. Zoe Leonard: Analogue Accompanies The Exhibition. Zoë Leonard Wexner Centre for the Arts. Columbus, Ohio.

Leonard, Z. 2007. Analogue. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Leonard, Z & Bremner, A. 2007. Analogue. Wexner Centre for the Arts. the Ohio State University,Columbus, Ohio.

Mack, J. 2008. Zoe Leonard: Derroterro. Photos And Old Maps Chart A Conceptual Voyage. Art Review. Time out New York / Issue 686.