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margueritestjust's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
This was my first foray into a photography memoir, and I deeply enjoyed it. I picked this book up after viewing the play of the same name that had been adapted from this material, and one of the things that I enjoyed was that I got different experiences from each, despite the fact that the play draws from this book.
One of the core themes of this work is truth; what truth is, and how what you believe about the truth might affect the way that you perceive artwork. Sultan neatly juxtaposes a strictly factual view of truth and a metaphorical truth respectively in his father and mother. Sultan's father's point of view on the truth is reflected in the photographic material presented prior to Sultan's own photography - documentation of family history - major or minor events - but something that is already in action, and worthy of a photograph to hold on to those memories. Sultan's mother's point of view is perhaps reflected in Sultan's own work, which is composed as artwork, and therefore somewhat or entirely staged.
Sultan argues that perhaps while his photographs may not reflect something necessarily factual, they capture something that is quintessentially true. Perhaps his argument is best supported by the fact that his own photography is vivid in color and clear in shape, whereas the older photography is faded, less clear in line and motion. Certainly, Sultan's photography is more memorable and portrays an undercurrent of emotion not always present in the other images from decades past. However, Sultan also manipulates those older photographs further by often showing a cropped portion of an image, sometimes enlarged to be the size of a full page, usually to focus on a detail that he deems to be significant in one way or another, such as a photograph of his father and mother as young adults, their legs pressed together.
Sultan further critiques his father by discussing how driven his father was by success and the image of success, and notes that at nearly every significant event where he and his wife was photographed, he always had her stand the same way, with one ankle in front of the other. Might not this continually constructed image of the two of them together, smiling and happy, also be something not factually true?
Told with a clear vision and a frank look at his past, this memoir shows a clear understanding of how photography as an art form might be used to support claims and similarly how it might be creatively wrestled with to tell a story. Perhaps every recounting of the "truth" is somewhat subjective by virtue of being filtered through the variations of the human experience.
One of the core themes of this work is truth; what truth is, and how what you believe about the truth might affect the way that you perceive artwork. Sultan neatly juxtaposes a strictly factual view of truth and a metaphorical truth respectively in his father and mother. Sultan's father's point of view on the truth is reflected in the photographic material presented prior to Sultan's own photography - documentation of family history - major or minor events - but something that is already in action, and worthy of a photograph to hold on to those memories. Sultan's mother's point of view is perhaps reflected in Sultan's own work, which is composed as artwork, and therefore somewhat or entirely staged.
Sultan argues that perhaps while his photographs may not reflect something necessarily factual, they capture something that is quintessentially true. Perhaps his argument is best supported by the fact that his own photography is vivid in color and clear in shape, whereas the older photography is faded, less clear in line and motion. Certainly, Sultan's photography is more memorable and portrays an undercurrent of emotion not always present in the other images from decades past. However, Sultan also manipulates those older photographs further by often showing a cropped portion of an image, sometimes enlarged to be the size of a full page, usually to focus on a detail that he deems to be significant in one way or another, such as a photograph of his father and mother as young adults, their legs pressed together.
Sultan further critiques his father by discussing how driven his father was by success and the image of success, and notes that at nearly every significant event where he and his wife was photographed, he always had her stand the same way, with one ankle in front of the other. Might not this continually constructed image of the two of them together, smiling and happy, also be something not factually true?
Told with a clear vision and a frank look at his past, this memoir shows a clear understanding of how photography as an art form might be used to support claims and similarly how it might be creatively wrestled with to tell a story. Perhaps every recounting of the "truth" is somewhat subjective by virtue of being filtered through the variations of the human experience.
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