Ready For My Close Up

Posted by Matt Cipriano | No Comments

Mario Batali, Martha Stewart, Boogie, Jimmi Simpson, Brice Marden are just some of the faces you might recognize on the walls of Jose Picayo’s exhibition: “Mug Shots.”

That isn’t to say though that everyone whose picture is up on the walls of the gallery is famous.

Of the couple hundred photos up on the walls of the gallery, there were only about seven who we could readily identify.

Well, that is besides all the folks who showed up for the opening who had sat for their photos.

I got a chance to check out Jose Picayo’s “Mug Shots” on opening night. The place was packed and a lot of friends came out to show their support. A large number of the folks who sat to have their mug shot snapped showed up to see how they turned out. It is a pretty impressive array of mug shots.

Lining three walls, the photos are pasted edge to edge and attached directly to the wall. The faces span age, ethnicity, occupation and pretty much every other criteria you could cite. Each image is unique, but also blends perfectly into the group.

Besides the skill of the photographer or the appearance of the subject there is another player in this exhibition: the medium. Having used Polaroid gives each of the mug shots a similar look and feel, but also means that no two pictures have the exact same coloring (well, they are black and whites). It is impressive to take in all the pictures as a whole, but equally as impressive to see them all as individual pictures. (Josh: for this reason, the conceit of the mugshot did not lead, as I had expected, to a monotonous exhibit since the photos varied in contrast and brightness despite being basically uniform in composition.)

The method — viewing so many people shot in nearly uniform conditions and presentation so starkly together — forces an examination of the subjects without context, so one is left only with one’s own opinions: with what we each bring to the images we see. (Josh: Avedon and others have attempted to extricate the subject from their surroundings, but Avendon only took the method to a point and not beyond. Picayo definitely went further.)

In looking at everyone in this fashion, the exhibit also asks us to look at ourselves. But don’t just take my word for it. I recommend heading over to the Robin Rice Gallery to check out the exhibition for yourself. I’d actually like a chance to go back and see it all without all of the other people around, so don’t be surprised if you find me there when you go.

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