Surely it's only a coincidence that "Lynchian" (click) is attached to the review headline (click), days after the obituaries and assorted, breathless hosannas.
I'm a big admirer myself, and so I'm very interested in all of Lynch's trajectory: the striving, the triumphs, and yes the failures. Within a certain cultural context, he was an original, though perhaps less so than his most uncritical consumers realize. Go out there and seek Lynchian stuff that predates Lynch, or occurred independently, it's not difficult even if it's not necessarily ironic. Lynch was about looking under the surface, if nothing else.
The comparison does a disservice to the photographer under review. He is unwhite(!), unamerican(!), and (according to the review synopsis) produces "a photographic world view influenced by French modernism, new wave aesthetics, creolisation and Haitian spiritualism."
FWIW almost all photographs can have a "dreamlike" quality, because they are all unreal representations of reality. This makes it really difficult to separate out imputed artistic intention from snapshot randomness.“Prada offers savage, instinctive menswear” |