Michael Joseph (1941-) - Through the Barrel, Vietnam 1964

lotto/michael joseph 1941 through the barrel vietnam 1964 4uYVqDS 632979083 / In vendita

lotto/michael joseph 1941 through the barrel vietnam 1964 4uYVqDS 632979083

In venditaRisultati d’asta

lotto/michael joseph 1941 through the barrel vietnam 1964 4uYVqDS 632979083

In venditaRisultati d’asta

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Michael Joseph (1941-) - Through the Barrel, Vietnam 1964

Through the Barrel - South Vietnam, 1964 Michael Joseph (b. 1941) C-type colour photographic print Original photograph: South Vietnam, 1964 Signed and dated by Michael Joseph Limited Edition: 1/20 A startlingly intimate colour portrait from Michael Joseph’s Vietnam archive, photographed in South Vietnam in 1964, when Joseph was just 23 years old. At first, it is the soldier’s face that holds you. The red beret, the camouflage, the sandbags behind him - and above all that unwavering gaze directly into Michael Joseph’s camera. And then you notice what is happening in the foreground. The blurred muzzle of his weapon appears to be pointing directly towards the camera lens - and therefore directly towards the photographer. Suddenly the photograph feels very different. Was this simply a playful gesture between a young soldier and an equally young photographer? Was it bravado? Curiosity? A moment of tension? Was Michael completely comfortable behind his camera - or did his heartbeat quicken as he pressed the shutter? We cannot know, and that uncertainty is precisely what gives the photograph its extraordinary psychological charge. Photography often depends upon the photographer moving closer when instinct might suggest doing exactly the opposite. A camera can create intimacy, but it can also provoke a reaction: curiosity, amusement, suspicion, performance - even confrontation. Here, camera and weapon seem almost to meet one another across the photograph, each pointing towards the person behind the other. The soldier himself gives remarkably little away. There is no obvious smile, anger or theatrical aggression. His expression remains calm and inscrutable. Joseph, meanwhile, does not retreat. He focuses on the man's eyes and takes the photograph. The vivid colour intensifies the encounter. Against the subdued camouflage and sandbags, the magnificent red beret dominates the frame. It is strongly suggestive of the distinctive headgear associated with South Vietnamese airborne forces, although the sitter's precise unit and identity have not yet been established from the surviving archive. Taken in 1964, before the major escalation of American ground combat involvement the following year, the portrait belongs to an extraordinary early body of work made by a photographer barely older than many of the soldiers he encountered. This contemporary C-type photographic print has been personally signed and inscribed “South Vietnam 1964” by Michael Joseph and will additionally be numbered 1/20, the first print in an official limited edition of twenty. A portrait that asks more questions than it answers. Who was this young soldier? What passed between him and the young photographer facing him? And when a weapon is pointed towards your lens, does professional instinct overcome the very human impulse for your heart to beat just a little faster?

Stima:€850

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