Visiting Artist Talk – Gabriela Bulisova

I thought that the gallery of her works was really good. In addition to the fact that it was great to see Ms. Gabriela, I was happy to see her works in person as this was my first experience. I had been opportune to have taken a class with her and she was very helpful in directing me in how to edit my pictures or how to use the Photoshop tools to create the best effect. Looking at her pictures in the gallery made it possible for me to see the outcome of her great skill in photography that she taught me.

I really like her work as a photojournalist. Each project dealt with social issues that I had little knowledge about. When I hear or read about any news about Iraq, it is usually about the war and the impacts of the war to America and sometimes about its influence in the lives of Iraqis living in Iraq. Gabriela’s depiction of the lives of Iraqi refugees in neighboring regions like Damascus and Syria was something I did not know about. But her way of depicting the lives of the Iraqi’s that she met gave a face, a story, and sometimes unuttered words to these refugees.

I particularly liked the way she used vingetting a lot in her pictures which placed the individual or individuals as the center and focus of the image. Also, the choice of lighting or even the layout of the images added to the visual impact of the different pictures. One of the images that I remember is that of an Iraqi girl with a gown pulled up to reveal a big ghastly wound. The girl faces the camera and she is captured as if she is looking to us, the viewers of the picture. The image is quite captivating and not only tells us the health impact that the war in Iraqi (presumably) has had on her but also makes me want to know the what and the why of her story.

Photojournalism, like what Gabriela has done so beautifully with her work, really adds a second level to journalism and adds visual context to events or stories that are being reported. Like what Gabriela has done with her projects, photojournalistic works can stand alone without words. They are not fully descriptive but are a great way to spur a conversation which can then lead to the search for the text that describes the image. Gabriela’s images stand alone but are in themselves are not self explanatory. It was great that the text were sometimes not placed with all the sets of pictures which allowed the viewers to survey the images and ask their own questions before seeking to find an answer to their questions which I believe was one of the purpose of the texts.

Lastly, the thoughtful placement of the groups of pictures for each project was great. I got that there was a sense of order but also that the nature of the open space was used in the ordering. There was a sense of playfulness to my mind – I had to work to find the pictures, the pictures were just not waiting in plain sight for me. At one point, I would check all around the beams to see if there were any pictures in hiding.

In general, I thought that the gallery was a success and was able to relate the lives of other people who are in some way being affected by some form of war.