Visual Arts

Memorial Day, Mortality and the Work of Edward Bateman

Just when I think I understand Ed Bateman’s images he throws a curve and I have to start all over.
You think it’s an original 19th-century studio portrait framed on a photographer’s carte de visite, a nod to the ancestors. Then you look closer and something is very wrong. You trusted the patina, the formality, the tint, the truth that we all assume photographs convey. But you are deceived: The child version of great grandmother Hedy (or is it great-grandfather Fred?) is posed next to a robot dog. It almost seems a travesty but you can’t stop looking at the image. What can you trust?

Translate »