Charlottesville 2012 by Laurence Cornet
Charlottesville, Virginia: a small pedestrian downtown where for four days a throng of photographers from every generation wave to each other, stop to grab coffee, meet in the theatre of an old-looking cinema to listen to a friend, they lay in the grass every evening to discover new images projected onto a canvas shell. The atmosphere is as hot as the late spring, divided between nostalgia for a bygone era on the one hand and the fun of sharing memories and make plans on the other. It’s a little bit hippie, too, like a kid sister to Visa pour l’Image.
Speaking of which, Jean-Francois Leroy is there. He never misses the festival under any circumstances. It’s the opportunity to toss around a few wild ideas about the future of photography. We dine with Bruce Gilden, who recalls a few zany memories about Brooklyn. We listen to Donna Ferrato talking openly about her experiences. With Jason Eskenazi we look forward to the next meeting like this, in Bursa, Turkey. Everyone speaks freely, with hints of provocation and humor. The raw truth. The festival hosted Cause Collective’s installation the Truth Booth, an inflatable vessel where visitors are filmed answering the question “What is truth?” One of the makeshift philosophers responds: “The truth is me, it’s all of us. Good luck with your own truth.” It was a simple idea that could be seen in the work of every photographer on display.
The Alex Webb retrospective was dazzling with vibrant colors captured the world over. The selection of Stanley Greene’s work offered a tender balance to the violence of his other photographs. The sexual series by Donna Ferrato were hidden behind a wall with three narrow viewing windows. It was like a playful and voyeuristic echo back to childhood, to stereoscopic images and spying through keyholes. All the ingredients for a successful festival.