Oscar: Color of Shadow

On Architecture of Authority

Architecture of Authority was a collection of photographs by Richard Ross. The places in the photos are where some form of authority is being enforced and “conversation may be transformed into interview, interrogation, and torture.” The artist’s skeptical perspective on authority is made clear in the title of the exhibition, in the subjects ranging from a confession room to a lethal injection room, and above all, through impactful methods: juxtaposing images that are not immediately related and creating irony through intentionally using peaceful and symmetric compositions with vivid colors to portray something that is formidable, asymmetric, and hierarchic.

The first technique with which Richard Ross illustrates his opinion is the juxtaposition of irrelevant or even contrasting places. Since the places seem to have nothing common at the first glance, it is more powerful and telling when we realize the existence of overriding authoritative totalitarianism in both. One example is the photos of UN and the Iraqi National Assembly put together. To most people, UN and Iraq are the antitheses. However, just like the beautifully photographed UN Security Council Chamber, Iraqi National Assembly in Baghdad is equally elegant in its architecture and in the way it is photographed. The artist reveals the overpowering authority being enforced in both places, which shows people what they do not immediately see. Also, next to the Iraqi National Assembly is the New York Times meeting room in New York, the symbol of the free mass media. Here, Richard Ross again associates places people do not usually in order to reveal the totalitarian authority in all the places. He also places the photo of a dormitory at a mental institution next to that of a Marine recruit depot. In the recruit depot, even the boots under the beds are arranged identically, and the bags are hung on the beds uniformly. Similarly, in the mental hospital, the beds are made so perfectly that there is no space for individuality. Again, by graphically revealing similarities between two apparently different places, the artist shows what people do not readily realize, the architecture of authority, and criticizes how authority demands uniformity and conformity. The most striking juxtaposition to me is what is at the very front of the exhibition, the photo of the Montessori toddler classroom and that of the communal room in the California state prison. The photo of the toddler classroom at first glance is so conventional and peaceful that it looks like it can be on the brochure of the Montessori School. However, juxtaposing it with the prison and putting both works under the collection titled Architecture of Authority gives a entirely different meaning to it. No one immediately thinks of empowering authority when they see a picture of a kindergarten. Nonetheless, the white circle in the middle on the floor in the classroom now symbolizes conformity commanded by authority just like the octagonal tables in the communal room in the jail.

Booking Bench, Los Angeles Police Department,

Fifth and Wall Street Station

The other interesting and effective technique the artist uses is the irony created by aesthetic portrayal of ugly or formidable places where authority takes over beauty of individuality. All the photos have serene elegance and architectural beauty. They look as if they could be on architecture magazines or even advertisements. The composition uses extreme symmetries and vivid colors. There are several examples that portray the beauty in the photos that immediately causes discrepancy with the ugliness of authoritarianism. Palacio de Lecumberri (former prison) in Mexico City has a radiant red tower in the center and a gate also in red opening from each side towards the tower. The photo is symmetric, colorful, and pretty, like a castle on a post card. Then we see the placard that tells us that this beautiful place is in fact a jail. In the photo of a main jail control viewing area, there is a manned desk equipped with a computer and cameras in the center of the photo. A man is sitting there, looking over all the prisoners whose glimpses are shown through the windows that beautifully surround the desk. The photo is symmetric and elegant, but it is about total centralization. Other very repelling places with appealing images are the booking bench in the police department and the lethal injection room. In both photos, everything is featured beautifully with such vivid colors and with such perfect tranquility and symmetry that it is shocking and repelling that these beautiful images are images of confinement and death, where authority is absolute and even fatal.

The first thing I learned from the exhibition was how an artist’s intention creates an entirely different way for the audience to understand the photographs. I want to project my own perspective into my work as I work on the final project, my portrait of New York City. Everyone sees the dazzling diversity in New York. The melting pot! The big apple! I too was overwhelmed by people pouring out of the subway stations, jogging, running, walking, calling, eating, singing, dancing, kissing, laughing, frowning, yelling, chatting, doing everything one can possibly do on the streets. Everyone was so drastically different from one another, in their clothes, attitudes, ways they walk, languages, hairs, faces, and etc. Nevertheless, it is such splendid individuality in New York that made it more fascinating for me to find what is beyond the overwhelming individuality, things that are not instantly available to skimming eyes: things like similarities, languidness behind such fanatic flux of movements, cycles, repetitions, emptiness, and lack of communications, which I am trying to illustrate in my photos. Also, I was deeply impressed by the techniques he used to effectively convey his opinions, juxtaposing images and creating irony. Thus, since then, I have been trying new things. One of them is to make a composition as compact and dense as possible, putting so many things in the frame that none of them stands out nor makes sense—individuality drowned in the sea of it. I also have been many photos at night when the boundaries get fuzzy, two different things merge into one, and people become pensive.