Cars, candy, and China

Photographers find beauty in new, old, and the familiar

July 10, 2010|Mark Feeney, Globe Staff

Robert Frank’s 1956 “Covered Car’’ is one of the totemic American photographs of the last century. The automobile in question, flanked by palm trees, looks utterly alien: like an Egyptian mummy with a V-8 inside, and in Long Beach, no less. The beauty of Andrew M.K. Warren’s “Car Pictures,’’ one of three shows at the Griffin Museum of Photography that run through Aug. 29, is how familiar the several covered cars in it look — strange, yes, but definitely familiar. Totems? They’re eyesores, and proud of it. And the ones that aren’t covered, ought to be. There’s nothing vintage about a clunker.

At least one of the 16 photographs, “VW Bug in Snow, Putney, VT’’ is startlingly beautiful, even poetic. “Blue Chevy, Dedham, MA’’ is peekaboo funny. “Car in Water, Andover, MA’’ is also funny, as well as odd and a bit unsettling. Seeking “evidence of automotive entropy,’’ as he writes, Warren responds to the derelict and near-derelict vehicles he encounters with respect, affection, and dismay. On the used-car lot of life, he’s the guy with a camera in his hand and wistful look on his face.

Andrea Rosenthal’s “Stations of the Scale’’ combines image and text with a bond as inextricable as that between hunger and satiety. Its eight photographs are a visual “memoir’’ (her word) of overeating. They’re playful and witty and not a little sad.

“Jellybeans,’’ for example, shows just what you think it does. The caption reads, “No jellybeans were harmed in the making of this exhibit.’’ Then, in smaller type, “Well, maybe a few.’’ The caption for “Reading’’ is, “I like anything that starts with ‘c,’ such as cheese, candy, or cookies, preferably read while reading.’’ New line. “I love reading.’’ The accompanying photograph shows a scattering of Dots, an empty Dots box, an empty M&Ms box, and a paperback book on a bed. What really makes the photo is the spill of light, as from a reading lamp, in the upper-right corner. Heaven above, hell below?