In the words of Aperture book publisher Lesley A. Martin, “Corridore’s project, ‘Angry Black Snake,’ is an exercise in minimalism. Each image has been pared down to the barest of elements—urgent gestures and hardly traceable figures cloaked in smoke and dust. Yet each image pulses with palpable emotional tension, telegraphed by these starkest of representational sketches and the subtle shifting colors of the clouds that descend upon each scene like a flimsy curtain.”
“As Corridore describes it, the project began as part of a larger portrayal of spectators at various events, including auto races, but became increasingly focused on those few moments where the event and the landscape in which it takes place come into direct and violent contact, for all intents and purposes eliding the spectator from the scene almost entirely. Car race or apocalyptic collision, the true nature of these events is never fully disclosed. Behind the scrim of kicked up particulate matter, however, it’s evident that there is something afoot. The few discernable figures raise their arms—in victory, or perhaps to call out in distress; eyes are covered or screened for a better view. The work is remarkable for its use of restraint as a strategy to immerse the viewer in an indecipherable yet tangible Sturm und Drang.”
Michael Corridore is a graduate of Photography Studies College, Australia. He opened exhibitions of this work at the Australian Centre for Photography in January 2009 and, concurrently in May 2009, at the Ipswitch Art Gallery and Gippsland Art Gallery. Corridore is currently based in New York City and Sydney, Australia.
This year’s winner, Alexander Gronsky, and the runners up can be viewed here.
An exhibition of the winning series will be organized for 2011. Exclusive limited-edition photographs will be made available by Aperture in the near future. The purpose of the Prize is to identify trends in contemporary photography and specific artists who we can help by bringing their work to a wider audience. In choosing the winner, we are looking for work that is fresh and hasn’t been widely seen in major publications or exhibition venues.
The deadline for the 2010 Aperture Portfolio Prize is July 14, 2010
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