Funch!
I came across this wonderful Danish photographer the other day. His name is Peter Funch and he is based in New York City. I am absolutely bursting with excitement telling you about this. Why? I guess, for me, Funch’s work just has that special something.
I’ll let you have a peruse for yourself before I start putting thoughts in your head.
Memory Lane
Informing Informers
Exigent State
Stale Mate
Suspecting Suspects
Cool huh. The above photographs are all from Funch’s series Babel Tales, which documents inhabitants of the city of New York as they go about their everyday lives.
I know what you’re thinking. Are these images posed? Nope, they are not. I promise. Are they photoshopped? Yes indeed, how astute you are! These are all digitally altered images.
Go back and have a look through them something didn’t tip you off the first time.
How do you feel about that? Me personally, I feel just fine. I have a sneaking suspicion you do as well. Why? Because photography, in a time when the digital makes everything possible, is inherently uncertain. And we, as the viewing public, are comfortable with that.
Am I right?
Funch captures digital images of individuals as he sees them within the New York cityscape, then positions them within a created scene. Usually the scene carries with it some common theme or idea: a facial expression, a stance, a colour, a hat, an umbrella, the same individuals captured multiple times.
The thing about these images being taken in a city as dynamic and diverse as New York is that many of the created scenes could easily be perceived as real scenes from the city. Your instincts are confused. Is this real or is it created?
Deja vu - Mallorca (from the Deja vu - Scenes from Above series)
Quickly, however (or slowly… I won’t discriminate), our minds begin to comprehend the visual clues in the image. “That’s a lot of planes. Isn’t it a bit dangerous to have that many planes in the sky at one time?”
Or, “Wait a minute, even in New York not everyone in a scene could have both feet 10 centimetres off the ground.”
No. Not even in New York.
Somehow though, instead of these images being seen as tricks, or as ‘second rate’ art, they are appreciated for the way in which they challenge us and make us think. They’re clever because they almost trick us.
There’s more to the effectiveness of Funch’s Babel Tales than that, however. These images are so strong because they highlight the human element of the city, and the cohesiveness within its population, despite the vastness of the city and the anonymity of its masses.
Babel Tales is Funch’s most recent series. Along with his Deja Vu series, he also has ongoing projects in his native Denmark, Amsterdam, Las Vegas (re man made objects rather than people), and took some moving photographs of the aftermath of 9/11.
Rather controversially, Funch also took a series of graphic photographs of serious car accidents, which can also be found on his website.
