Alejandro Chaskielberg was named Sony world photographer, just this evening, April 27. No, me neither. It turns out he's from Buenos Aires, which is neither here nor there, really: what really counts are the extraordinary images he's made. The series that so impressed the jury were of the residents of islands on the Rio Parana, upstream from Buenos Aires, and worlds away, a somewhat familiar landscape very like Tigre. Flash balanced against natural lighting makes strange dream-like landscapes.
I was really struck by the photos of Buenos Aires in the Argentina crisis in 2001, which aren't at all dream-like, but still strange. Look at the image with the water cannon, and see the guy on the left, arms raised as if expostulating with the 'policia'; how can you do this to us? & then look at all the other demonstrators, all in positions of movement, all running in different directions, as if the whole scene had been posed for the camera, which is wrong for reportage but still somehow manages to take you deeper into the strange heart of the scene than the grainy blurred 'real' image you'd expect. & the photo of lightening over the Casa Rosada, artifice and natural forces, and a powerful statement and an astonishing image.
These are all in the Portfolios at www.chaskielberg.com.
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