Middle Ground, San Diego, June, 2017 copyright Douglas Stockdale
A quick update; last night I did make my MoPLA (Month of Photography Los Angeles) submission and as anticipated, I went with the theme of Political Satire for my Middle Ground urban documentary project.
Besides the theme, I needed to place this photographic project in the context of an artist statement, so I had to work out the tweaks for that as well these last couple of days. Since this is a project that I am planning to publish next Spring, I was still letting the artist statement develop and perculate, but realize that I had just pushed that particular task up a bit in the schedule with the first formal submission of this project. sigh.
So here is the artist statement that I submitted:
Middle Ground is an urban landscape project which is in large part a political satire of attempts by a governmental group to institute, construct, and promote social alienation by building a wall between two adjoining countries. It is a visual parody of a current political folly; that in building a barrier in the Middle Ground that this will in turn create a (impenetrable) “Fortress America”. This investigation is meant to recall the man-built and ill-fated Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China and the current America-Mexico border wall and to reflect on the futility of such barriers. A barrier, no matter how great its size, will not impede the advance of individuals who are attempting to better themselves and their families.
Cheers!
Singular Images 