Sofia Silva’s Photography Transforms Our View
March 26, 2009
Alfredo Garzino-Demo
Editing by Anne Raver
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Most of us have never found much inspiration in looking at an empty parking lot, a place where we leave our car and find it when we are done.
Photographer Sofia Silva’s giant images of deserted parking lots reveal something that escapes most of us. As you look at her pictures, you see that parking lots, with their plain geometry and dry ugliness, are monuments to our civilization. At her shows, people crowd around these panoramic images of soullessness. Wide, functional eyesores, parking lots punctuate our landscapes, attesting to our barren, utilitarian lifestyle. Their emptiness evokes a lunar scene, with no humanity in sight.
Another photograph is a study of a nondescript suburban house in a winter setting, a scene that usually evokes a sense of quietness, security, home. This house communicates something different. There is no one in sight, the emptiness is eerie. You see Christmas decorations inside, which are supposed to speak of joy to the world. But here, they leave you uneasy, bereft, cold. You are looking at the American Dream exposed. It’s clean and tidy, probably in a desirable neighborhood, but there is nothing welcoming about it. Maybe this is where we live?
Do not think that all of Silva’s pictures are so bleak. To the contrary, move over to the next one. You will see an African-American man standing up, his hair braided and his strong arms and hands behind his reclined head. You see a human and, even if you cannot see his face, you see his pain and suffering. He could be a gladiator; the pose has an intensity that makes the man look strong and true. The picture is one of a series that Silva has taken at a homeless shelter. This man has seen so much more than we will ever see, and even if we see him as a weak member of our society, he has strength unknown to most of us. Dignified human beings look into Silva’s lens. We miss them as we walk down the street, too preoccupied with our lives. This is what makes Silva’s work so unique: Her eye captures a scene or person that you have never considered – or only glimpsed superficially. But through her lens, she can transform your perception. She conveys strength where you saw weakness, insecurity in a place you thought a refuge. She alerts you to the world.
A native Argentinean, Sofia has been developing her unique sensibility for images for almost two decades. She started taking pictures in high school for a photography workshop. One of her first class assignments was to shoot images of “El Hombre y su trabajo” (The Man and his work). One of the photographs she took was of her own grandfather. “I just took a picture of him, while he was in his store. You can see him from the back and you can see a hole in the elbow of his shirt. I thought that was meaningful of the effort and the work. It is a melancholic photo.”
That picture captured the attention of photographer Lutz Matszche, while he was evaluating Silva’s portfolio. “That’s it!” she remembers him saying as he was browsing through her pictures, “That one has ‘it.’ ”
She knew what he meant. “That picture made me discover my grandfather in a new way,” she said. “The camera gives you a new way of seeing things.” Sofia had started finding her way into redefining our visual phrasebook. In 2001 Sofia came to the United States to pursue her art, and now lives and works in Baltimore.
Her production has highly diversified, from artwork like the above to commercial work with educational institutions (including University of Maryland and Towson University), design firms, marketing agencies, non-profit organizations, corporations, editorial and performance art.
Toni Gianforti, marketing and communication manager at Meals on Wheels, says that “Sofia, quite simply, has put an intense and soulful face” on the group’s charitable mission, adding that her portraits of clients and volunteers, which are printed in the group’s many publications and ads, “have drawn people to us, which is an invaluable asset to any organization.”
Silva’s work has gained recognition in the U.S., Argentina and Spain. Her images have been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art and C. Grimaldi’s Gallery in Baltimore, and at shows in the West Coast and Argentina. She is particularly inspired by three photographers: Josef Koundelka, whose images of destruction, collected in the book “Chaos,” document contemporary calamities of civilization; Sujimoto, who uses very simple and straight lines for producing cerebral images; and Martin Parr, who injects a British sense of humor into his images. Silva’s work has a bit of all three these artists. Baltimore can hardly wait to see more of her signature style.
Visit sofiasilvafoto.com for more information or call or e-mail her at 443-904-0051 or sof...@sofiasilvafoto.com.
