Guy Tillim

Grande Hotel, Beira, Mozambique, 2008

Courtesy of Kuckei and Kuckei, Berlin & Michael Stevenson, Capotown

Guy Tillim's exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Photography was an interesting one.  At the beginning, I felt that the pictures were lacking something but I couldn’t figure out what it was!  That’s when I decided to read about what the whole exhibit was about.  The description said that Guy Tillim’s gallery of photos were meant to record the architecture and infrastructure of colonial and post-colonial Africa.  That’s when my mind began to work!  What I thought the pictures were lacking were people but they weren’t the actual subjects.  The building’s were the subject and that’s why I chose the pictures shown above.

The pictures are taken of the Grande Hotel.  What I immediately noticed about these pictures were the decaying buildings in the foreground as well as the background.  It gives you a feel of some of the living conditions that these people live in.  I feel like this is a good photo because it serves the purpose of what the exhibit is all about.  The exhibit is focused on the architecture of colonial and post-colonial Africa.  These pictures show the damage and decaying of the building while the building tells us a story.  

It tells us the struggles that it has been through.  It tells us that it is still remaining strong even after the wear and tear of conflict.  To understand the aesthetic of this picture, I asked myself, “What is the beauty of this photo?”  I thought that having little splashes of people in the background at totally different places serves as the soul of the picture.  The exhibit doesn’t focus on individual lives but this picture shows a little bit of that.  It shows that from the kids playing by the pool, to the old man sitting in his chair and to the woman doing laundry on the rooftop.  I feel like this picture is more social than personal because it documents the buildings and how it looks after the result of social change.