Post-Modern Visual History Writing
2009, Sep 30th
Photo: Julian Germain, aus Steelworks, 1986–1990
One of the most significant and important contemporary British photographers, Julian Germain (*1962) has recently launched a substantial personal website and his work will be part of a show titled Multivocal Histories, curated by Bas Vroege at the Noorderlicht festival opening on September 5th. Regarding Germain, Vroege writes:
“When Julian Germain published his book Steelworks in 1990, he unintentionally laid the foundations for a new current in documentary photography. Germain combined his own work with that of local news photographers, common-or-garden variety snapshots and forms of journalistic reporting. In doing so, he exposed the social clear-cutting of Thatcherism, which has been since described as ‘post-modern visual history writing’.” (MC)