ARTIST:

Broomberg & Chanarin

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Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Girl Looking), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

What is truth in photography? Bertolt Brecht claimed that photojournalism “has contributed practically nothing to the revelation of the truth about conditions in this world”. Could there be other routes for photographers? Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin prefer to search for truth not in the first-hand recording of some current event, but in the turbulence of the near past, as revealed in archival materials. Approaching the vast photographic archive amassed of the Troubles by the Belfast Exposed Archive, chronicling protests and confrontations, petty acts of violence and various routine happenings of daily life, they chose images not with a curatorial eye, but rather with a throw of the dice: they would expose only what was hidden below the round stickers placed willy-nilly by the archivists on the prints. And as a way of revealing the strong feelings these pictures could unleash, they included images purposely defaced by the subjects themselves, obviously fearful of repercussions.

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (People Saluting), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Boy On Tip Toes), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Young Dancer), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Hand In Eye), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Three Women Two Smoking), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Balloons Escaping), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Fountain), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Boy Falling), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Car On Fire), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Boxer With Bright Light), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Riot Shields In The High Street), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Boy With Sign), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Cracked Glass), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Two Boys Standing), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Birds), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Man Showering), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Man Handcuffed To Drainpipe), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Man With Jackets), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Collar With Bloodstain), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Man With Halo), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Boy Looking At Glass), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Boy Running With Barrel), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Head Wound), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Untitled (Legs), 2010
Fibre-based print
25.4 x 20.3 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
April to August 1993 6 Sheet 2, 2010
C-type print
190 x 150 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Culture 3 Sheet 72, 2010
C-type print
150 x 190 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Political 1 Sheet 19, 2010
C-type print
150 x 190 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
27 September 1996, Sheet 27, Frame 9, 2010
C-type print
190 x 150 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 4 from the archive of Adela K. Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Recuperating the past, or more correctly a realistically fictive past, is the artists’ aim in their series Alias. With the help of (real) researcher Laura Lejsu, they tell the story of a young Jewish girl trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto who makes use of the family’s photography studio to forget the horrors happening outside. Yearning for a freedom denied them, she and her friends pose in the nude, in private defiance of the tightening vice. Alas, the old negatives were never properly fixed and must be displayed under red glass.

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 5 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 31 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 34 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 35 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 36 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 37 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
ALIAS: Dora Fobert (1925-1943). Image 38 from the archive of Adela K, Ca 1942, 2011
Fibre-based paper negative
25 x 20 cm

Text by William A Ewing

Broomberg & Chanarin
Strip Test 1, 2012
Fibre based print
200 x 98 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Strip Test 3, 2012
Fibre based print
190 x 110 cm

Broomberg & Chanarin
Strip Test 4, 2012
Fibre based print
110 x 194 cm

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