Jeff Wall is a Canadian photographer who's pieces veer towards narrative and classical often alluding to historical artists. He was born, lives and works in Vancouver and has been a key figure in the vibrant art scene of the city for many years. Wall's themes are mainly social and political, including issues such as racism, violence, poverty and gender. He distinguishes between unstaged "documentary" pictures and "cinematographic" pictures (in which he uses a number of actors, sets and special effects to produce.)

Wall's techniques are to produce large scale photographs displayed on light boxes in which the narratives are meticulously created using actors, lighting and digital manipulation.

"Mimic" (1982) shows his cinematographic style. It is a large colour transparency showing a white couple and an asian man walking towards the camera. The sidewalk is filled with cars and residential and industrial buildings, suggesting a North American suburb. The woman is wearing red shorts and a short top showing her belly. Her boyfriend is in a denim vest with a scruffy beard. The man is more formally dressed. As they pass the boyfriend makes an obscene gesture towards the man, one the girlfriend cannot see. This camptures the moment and the social tensions that are implied within it, but is also a recreation of an exchange witnessed by the artist.




"Mimic" (1982)

Wall also became interested in film stills and much of his work has stemmed from this. The interest was more in the narritve of the stills. An example of this is "Insomnia" (1994) depicts a man wearing what appear to be pyjamas, lying on the floor in a kitchen underneath the table. The man is in his own world, seemingly unaware that he is being photographed. This technique brings in the element of narrative, enticing us to imagine why the man is lying on the floor in such harsh lighting.

"Insomnia" (1994)

I like the way we are forced to look a little closer at Wall's photographs. At first glance they may appear to be one thing but are actually something completely different.