1600 Pennsylvania Ave by Michael Mergen
For this week's blog post, I decided to do an artist/ series that I did not necessarily really like. I felt that Michael Mergen's technical choices in his series 1600 Pennsylvania Ave made the landscapes feel too stagnant. It may have been the artist's intentions, but there was nothing in the photos that captured me or kept me there. I also felt that his exposures made the photos feel flat. The lighting and contrast were not very different in range. Not to mention most of the subjects are all centered in the composition, which can be successful but I felt that Mergen could have had more range in his technicalities.
Conceptually, I think Mergen is a little more successful. Before reading about the series, I had only seen the name 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, which immediately put the white house into my head. With this idea in mind, I didn't quite get the connection between the photos and the White House. I kept trying to think of similarities. I had come to the conclusion that Mergen was just displaying photos of mundane American streets apart from the American symbol of the White House. This was maybe done to show disconnect between the government and the people. After reading the statement about the series, my assumption about the disconnect was pretty close. Mergen was capturing places in America that shared the same address as the White House to show the stark difference between them.
Personally, I felt that Mergen could have pushed the photos a little further. I felt that his concept was not communicated very well through the photos. If I had seen these photos, without any context or series title, they would not hold any weight or interest to me. I am interested in the concept of the address but I think its drama and isolation could have been translated better. The title or explanation should not be the only thing that makes the photos successful.
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