Lecture 1 (Fall 2011) Zwelethu Mthethwa

The first visiting artist to show unfinished work and ask for opinions. This is very brave as the audience on this events wants authority. A lecture is not a studio visit. I like his work, for the most part. The series I hated was the staged people in parks in South Africa, they looked as bad stock photos. His other photo work is very traditional but in a location that has not been yet covered. I had the feeling that I see Walker Evans' photographs about another country. Mthethwa seems very involved in creating a visual account of these specific people at this point of time. In 50 years there will be a document of his subjects, who otherwise would not be able to leave a trace in public consciousness. And Mthethwa's photographs do exactly this, show something transient and until this moment anonymous. The merit of his work is to have as little intervention in the image and in the same time create highly sophisticated photographs. His personality in his work is his care for his subjects (emphasizing on them not himself), recognizing the importance of the topic he works on and making a really great job photographing it.