Retinal Shift – Mikhael Subotzky’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award Exhibition – investigates the practice and mechanics of looking in relation to the history of photographic devices, and Subotzky’s own history as an artist. The works in the show draw on archival portraits from the last century, found surveillance footage, and Subotzky’s own photographs from various series’ that are re-contextualised here.
The opening works on the show are self-portraits that Subotzky made with the assistance of an optometrist. High-resolution images of his left and right retinas are placed side by side. “I was fascinated by this encounter. At the moment that my retina’s, my essential organs of seeing, were photographed, I was blinded by the apparatus that made the images. So it is a self-portrait of myself the photographer, at a moment that I could not see.”
Inkjet print mounted to Diasec
100 x 80cm
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Inkjet print mounted to Diasec
100 x 80cm
0577