Poignant Pics no. 82: On Kurt Schroeder's “Untitled Triptych”
“For the eye, every photograph is an enigma.”
Photo historian Michel Frizot wrote, "The photograph is not in its essence a transparency through which we gain access to a known reality but, on the contrary, a source of ambiguity and often, perplexity. The photographic image is a constellation of questions for the eye because it offers viewers forms and signs they have never perceived as such and which conflict with their natural vision." That's quite an accurate statement for this triptych by Kurt Schroeder.
I saw this image in a Facebook art and photography group, and I immediately responded to it. But I was surprised by who made it. I've known its creator for about a year via (a different) FB photography group. This work was 180 degrees different than any I had seen him post. How should I also word this—it's unusual, perhaps odd, and completely enigmatic. Other than the portrait in the center, I'm unsure what I am looking at. Some detritus and maybe a tiny piece of more extensive architecture? I don't know. Even the portrait is not your “standard portrait”, with its angled view and tree-level hair smack dab in the center of the frame. From what I know of him, it does utterly seem to be the essence of its creator.
Schroeder was as enigmatic as his work. He told me, "They are poignant images that evoke a sense of loss and trauma through an abstract sense that something, somewhere, has gone terribly wrong. Three images, one work. A subject at the center referencing either side of the central panel. Images of childhood."
The tonality is gorgeous. The triptych format forces a cadence formed by the irreplaceable and ambiguous strangeness of the imagery. The question of what it is trying to tell me is what keeps me looking. I will be looking for a while to figure it out.
Bravo, Kurt. Looking forward to seeing how the series develops.
Artist Bio
Rolling around the gutter of middle-class cultural tropes
Whereby those in my small-minded City of Gloucester UK
Preferring superficiality and selfie culture to promote the City (with one or two superlative exceptions)
Depth isn't my City's forte
It is a culturally conservative place
See more of his work on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/kurttheenglishrogue/
Author Bio
Diana Nicholette Jeon is an award-winning artist based in Honolulu, HI, who works primarily with lens-based media. Her work has been seen both internationally and nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Jeon holds an MFA from UMBC.