Text Julian Lucas
10/13/2021
Several things stood out at about the exhibition “The End of Silence” by Antonio Turock, featured at Eastern Projects Gallery. One of the best photographic exhibitions held there by far. In this exhibition the images were photographed decades ago, rather than in recent years. Which can be highly appreciated, because of the amount of documentary work completed decades ago, and because it wasn't just another art exhibition about coming out of a pandemic, yawn.
Nonetheless, the exhibition emphasized work through artistically through storytelling giving a raw deep glimpse into the politics, the culture and environment within countries such as Chiapas and Oaxaca's civil unrest, as well as wars in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, by juxtaposing photographs of impoverished, displaced, but humble individuals.
“The difference between a photojournalist and a documentary photographer is that while the former seeks to record the event, the latter wonders why it happened, he creates a script in his head about what he wants to convey. The documentary photographer must study what he is going to photograph, being a kind of anthropologist, sociologist, having a background in art history, it is the only way in which the photographer can become an integral part of that experience. He must be passionate about the story he will document.” – Antonio Turok
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Antonio Turok, born in Mexico City in 1955, is considered one of the most important documentary photographers of today, internationally recognized as one of the artists who have dedicated 40 years of his life to capturing the human condition or simply sharing a beautiful landscape. Turok and hisphotographic gaze are always where adrenaline and fear would drive almost everyone away, where, thanks to his instinct, the viewer can access images that stop the precise moment, the one that summarizes an entire historical moment between the four corners of the photograph , a defining feature of a society or a social conflict.
BOOKS
Antonio Turok: La Fiesta y La Rebelión, Ediciones Era Mexico 2018, Chiapas: The End of Silence / El fin del silencio. Aperture Foundation, New York, and Ediciones Era, Mexico, 1998. Images of Nicaragua. House of Images, Mexico, 1988.
PUBLICATIONS
Aperture, United States; Camera Work, United States; Chronicle, Mexico; DoubleTake, United States; Paris Match, France; Process, Mexico; Stern, Germany; Texas Monthly, United States; The Independent, Great Britain; Likewise, he has collaborated on several collective books such as: 160 Years of Photography in Mexico, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico. Indiens Chiapas-Mexico-Californie –Un monde fait de tous les mondes-. Du parc de la Villete, Paris. Memory - Presence of Guatemalan refugees in Mexico, Ministry of the Interior, Mexico.
AWARDS
The FONCA -National System Award for Artists in Mexico, Medal of Photographic Merit 2018 , USA-Mexico Fund for Culture Rockefeller/Bancomer Award 1997. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (Latin America & Caribbean) 1996. Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography 1994. Grant from the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, California for the documentary project : Our Neighbors, Two Sides of a Coin.
MUSEUMS
Philadelphia Art Museum. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Los Angeles County Museum of Art - Photographic Collection, Los Angeles CA. Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern and Mexican Photography,Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. Brooklyn Museum — Photographic Collection. Brooklyn, New York .; among others. Eastern Projects
RECAP
Antonio Turock
"The End of Silence"
October 9th - November 27th 2021
12p-6pm Tuesday to Saturday
Eastern Project Gallery
900 N Broadway #1090, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Julian Lucas, is fine art photographer, photojournalist, and creative strategist. Julian also works as a housing specialist which, includes linking homeless veterans to housing. Julian has lived in Chicago, Inglewood, Portland, and the suburbs of Los Angeles County including Pomona.
