Photo Jetlag

This week I went to check out "Everything Was Moving" at the Barbican, and I walked away thinking "Hm".

Untitled, Shomei Tomatsu (1979)

  

The exhibition deals with the photography of the 1960s and '70s, presenting twelve photographers from around the globe. It's an ambitious attempt to depict how the world was changing in front and behind the camera, and it contains staggering diversity. But there is both too much and not enough going on.

Raghubir Singh,  "Below the Howrah Bridge.." (1968)

Too much, because travelling around the world in twelve photographers induces jetlag/overkill.

Too little, because some photographers got several rooms (ex. David Goldlatt), while others barely got a couple of images (ex. the excellent Graciela Iturbide, below). 

Graciela Iturbide, Mujer Angel, Desierto de Sonora (1979)

The upshot of it all: I discovered, amongst others, Boris Mikhailov's clever and naughty impositions (below), projected onto friends' walls during parties, at a time when nude photography was forbidden in the Soviet Union.  

Once the jetlag overcome, one is glad to have travelled.