Track
'Track' by Clare Langan was on show at the Gallery of Photography, 9 May - 14 June 1997
Review by John Duncan
Issue 11 Spring Summer 1997
View Contents ▸
Clare Langan constructs her own reality through these images. It is a world she has formed through directing, light control, and filming. What becomes important is the whole and the flow of the project rather than an emphasis on any single image. Within this 'whole', sequencing and editing are used effectively to create a pace and structure. It is a relentless rhythm in which we are always moving towards the shifting fuzzy horizons.
The images were made in Iceland, Ireland and New York. It was Iceland that represented a definite place to go to make photographs, the other locations being accidents of living. Iceland attracted Langan with its 'desolate expanses' and perhaps also provided her with a more empty starting point for her own creation. Consistency between the geographies is provided by the recurring single figure. Always out of reach and just beyond focus we are continually following.
The other back beat of the project is the search for a vocabulary in the marks, colours and distortions of the conventional photographic frame. There is a struggle for a personalised language and articulacy in the project that shifts it beyond a pursuit of technique for its own sake. Liberated from tracing the real, the conventional photographic, we suspend disbelief and take our position in Track.
Other articles by John Duncan:
Other articles mentioning John Duncan:
Other articles mentioning Clare Langan:
Other articles on photography from the 'Manipulated' category ▸