Bio
Born 1949 in Panmure, New Zealand. Lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand and Paris, France.
Bruce Connew's interest lies within the political and social issues of contemporary experiences. He is well known for his social realist documentary style and his iconic photo-essays. Recently, his works have reflected on the dilemmas facing documentary photography today within its different forms and aesthetics, and in relation to globalization and our media saturated society.
Viewing Bruce Connew's recent work from his series I Must Behave came as somewhat of a surprise. I hadn't seen his 2007 publication I Saw You and consequently the radical departure from his social realist documentary style was unexpected to say the least. I stood in the gallery space and began to piece the work together - wondering about the decision-making process that caused Connew to choose the scenes, people and objects that he did. The title helps: I Must Behave suggests self-control and surveillance - an internal dialogue of self-observation.
But Connew's images don't give themselves away as easily as that. Initially I was left with a creeping sense of unease and dislocation, rather than perceiving any particular message about social control or observation. The images embody a sense of displacement, of disconnection between people (Susan Sontag's observation about Diane Arbus' photographs - that "Humanity is not one" springs to mind. v). We see a tire floating in a river. A running cat. Posters of missing children. Decrepit Modernist architecture. A woman's torso, with a dramatic scar. A duck in a cage. People walking in the street. A boxing match. A forest. A woman holding a banana. Viewing these images is a little like channel surfing. John Berger once commented that a photograph is like a quote, which, removed from its context, becomes ambiguous. Connew's images are just that - dozens of quotes, decontextualised. The images were made in New Zealand and multiple international locations - but more than that, I cannot identify. Sewn back together, these decontextualised quotes tell a new story of dystopia. There is no belonging in these photographs. It is not a reassuring story that Connew is telling us. This is an unsettling observation of the experience of globalisation: where we are, who we are and what we are, we can't quite say. Perhaps the sense of anxiety and disconnection apparent in these images is also a manifestation of the personal and social controls and restrictions we submit ourselves to.
Deidra Sullivan (PHOTO histories review, PhotoForum).
As an extension of his art practice, Bruce has also presented his works in the form of an artist book. His most recent series and book I Must Behave (2009) won third prize in the"Prix de la Photographie Paris" (Px3) 2010 under the category Book (Series Only).