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For the 15th part of the annual Photoville festival, which sees more than 90 exhibitions of photography from around the world, the co-founder of the festival Sam Barzilay thinks about apples – especially surprising and sometimes beautiful in the show Old Apples.
“I was very happy that I was chosen,” he told me happily. “It’s the most amazing thing we have, it’s about apples and how no two apples in nature are the same.”
With shows celebrating everything from cumbia music to the many ways people play soccer around the world and wolf sanctuaries, Photoville may be more fun than ever, but the show also offers a compelling lineup of hard-hitting reports and documentaries that have made past years so important. This year’s collection ranges from wildfires in the western US to how racial inequality affects access to water in ways that ICE has caused chaos in many parts of America.
In light of the Trump administration’s efforts to erase the reality of trans people, Photoville offers two shows that affirm the longevity of trans life. Special Girls, which comes from the archives of artist Remsen Wolff, features images from the 1990s of trans women, as well as gender-nonconforming people such as cross-dressers and drag queens.
Barzilay said: “The world has changed a lot from that time to today.”
The pictures are a feast for the eyes, with their beautifully drawn colors, shapes, and textures of the human body. Archaeologist Jochem Brouwer, who was Wolff’s friend during his lifetime, promised the photographer that he would introduce his work to the world. With exhibitions of Wolff’s photographs in Amsterdam and now New York, he is doing the same. “He looked at people as individuals, there was always someone he wanted to photograph,” Brouwer said. “Carrying on that legacy is difficult, and it’s great that now there’s interest.”
Special Girls is joined by Point of View, which combines portraits taken by Dutch college students as a way to explore their gender identity and art from the Rijksmuseum’s archives. The hope, as Barzilay said, is that visitors will feel free to explore their gender, and help them change the existence of trans people. “For the museum to acquire these images became a statement, showing how the Dutch people have changed over the years,” he said. “We are prosecuting something that people have already solved.”
Lexi Parra’s biopic The Avillas chronicles what happens after the matriarch of a famous family finds herself thrown into the middle of a dangerous immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. These images form a poignant reminder of what happens when a loved family member is taken away. Barzilay said: “This is looking at their lives today as they try to figure out what to do.
The impressive collection of Puppies Behind Bars is the fruit of nearly two years spent by artists Ashley Gilbertson and Ava Pellor in the men’s prison at Green Haven, documenting a program in which inmates raise puppies to become working dogs. The organization’s founder Gloria Gilbert Stoga shared that she knew instinctively that she wanted a war photographer to document what happened in prisons, because of the overcrowding in prisons.
“I wanted a war photographer, because going into prison is not something you can explain to people who are not in prison,” Stoga said. My opinion is that you can’t talk about war either, but I wanted people not to get caught up in the story.
Gilbertson, known for his pictures of the Iraq war, agrees with his description, and is joined by Pellor, who has photographed dangerous scenes such as wildfires and illegal border crossings in the Balkans. Their images take viewers to places that are cruel and hidden, revealing how the act of raising a dog can change this terrible reality.
“Dogs humanize the barren places,” said Gilbertson. For the first time in their lives, these men are sticking together when something goes wrong.”
Pellor particularly remembered a photo he made of one of the men in the program when he received his puppy for adoption, the act of receiving the dog bringing tears to his eyes. “I think it was their first time taking them out for a walk in the yard, and she just stuck her head in the puppy’s head and started crying,” Pellor said. “After that, they didn’t let him go the rest of the day.”
Women’s Grass by Blackfeet Nation artist Whitney Snow has documented the incredible web of knowledge and practices that have grown up around sweetgrass. For a long time the Blackfeet used it in both religious ceremonies and as a medicine, the plant is the domain of the tribe’s mothers, who passed down the knowledge of sweetgrass from generation to generation. “Women are held in high esteem in our society,” Snow said. “To have knowledge of plants like that is considered very high.”
While photographing The Women’s Grass, Snow was very careful about what she revealed to outsiders, consulting with tribal elders to make sure she was staying within the right boundaries. He said: “I think about how I can write this on a picture without taking advantage of it, without thinking too much.”
His beautiful, meditative images give an idea of how sacred sweet grass is, but also show the attitude that one should have when caring for and harvesting sweet grass, feeling one with nature. “I wanted someone to feel something, to feel good when they look at the pictures,” Snow said. I wanted you to be calm, like you’re out in nature.
Looking at Snow’s pictures I feel a sense of connection, as well as freshness and humanity. It’s a theme that comes up again and again throughout the work at Photoville. Barzilay said: “A lot of the goals of this project were like fun, like a fun time. You just feel good.”
