WTC 2003

JoAnn Verburg made this photograph, called WTC. The flowers in the background are so delicate and lush, but the surface of the image is so matte, which softens the blow of the news. It's almost like a watercolour painting. The subject is hidden behind the paper, lost in the news. The newspaper dominates the composition, yet the soft focus on the flowers beyond brings a strange calm to the image. The light seems to glow from behind and within the newspaper. Look at the smudged ink on the left hand page. It's almost as if the subject has been trying to erase the news, or perhaps the news is trying to erase the subject. Thinking about other artists, the work of Gerhard Richter comes to mind. Like Richter, Verburg seems interested in the ways that photography can be both a record of reality and a kind of abstraction. Neither artist is interested in fixed meanings.