Aicon Gallery presented a
month-long show of Richard Rapfogel's photography of India in its Fifth
Avenue gallery in New York City from August 12th to September 11th, 2005.
Consisting of thirty-four images (occupying 150 feet of gallery wall), the
show exhibited Rapfogel's
startling and often haunting photographs of India. Rapfogel’s
“humanscapes” depict the multiply layered surfaces of everyday life, from
peeling posters on city walls to portraits of people emplaced in their
familiar surroundings.
Click here to view the photographs
included in the show. (This link will open in a new window.
Simply close that window to return to this page.) |
Richard Rapfogel's pictures take me back to an India of perpetual wonder
without any exotic complacency. I particularly like to let my spirit dwell
on his "walls", which evoke to the dreamy mind the hidden wonders of
palimpsests. An ad for some toothpaste, a communist manifesto, a god to
praise, some movie icon, a love tag and many other erased traces of
activity open up realms of volume and movement. As I imagine people taking
possession of their shreds of wall, I picture all kind of life worlds,
motivations, hopes, revolts, daily chores or hidden agendas. In each of
these layers, many stories can be told. In their encounter, great
photography is made.
(Dr. Nicolas Yazgi, Anthropologist and Exhibition
Curator.) |
