Text Commentary- Lorna Simpson

Art is always about expressing an attitude. She leaves her personal opinion out of the work. By doing thisit gains authority. her work allows the viewer to connect to the pieces to help fill in the missing feelings or emotions. Her skill set is photography, and she uses the medium to exploit its potential of transmitting a message. She deals with racism primarily. I disagree with her statement about how confining her work to black and white, she cirucumvents the emotive moods that color evokes. On the contrary I feel B & W photography expresses more feeling and emotion than does color. I do feel like she strips them of not only their individuality but also their personality. Anyone person can look different from the next. The people she is photographing look staged. They are acting. They look like they have been told what to do. Hence...the subtraction of their personalities and individualism. They cannot think for themselves. You cannot elimate someones age, body type, and looks. You can hide it. But it is always still there. No matter what. I can tell that Lorna's work is her work. It is lifeless. Still. Boring. I wouldn't buy it. Nor would I even spend more than a seconds glance staring at it. I want to be captivated. I want to be enthrawled into a photo so that I can generate my own narrative. Not spin along based on someone elses. That is just my personal opinion.