Bookstore Gallery Auctions Blog Editions VisualServer
 
BEST OF 2012
BEST OF 2011
BEST OF 2010
BEST OF 2009
BACK TO BLOG HOME f.a.q.mastheadinquiriesfeedbackadvertisenewsletter
back
back
Silence
view comments [5]
Reviewed by George Slade, published on Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Font Size: T T T | print | email
Brad Rimmer Silence
Photographs by Brad Rimmer
T&G Publishing, , 2010. Hardbound. 96 pp., 51 color illustrations, 9x10-1/4".
Silence Photographs by Brad Rimmer Published by T&G Publishing, 2010.
It sometimes seems miraculous that compelling photographs can be made anywhere on earth, even in the most unpromising environs. It may even seem so to the photographer making the photographs, that a place and its people may remain visually recalcitrant despite all one's skills and will. Just when you think the world's visual riches have all been tapped, and every strategy applied and reapplied to the most mundane and lifeless subjects, along comes this surprisingly gratifying collection of photographs of a remote town in Australia with an ungainly name-Wyalkatchem, or Wylie for short.

Silence, by Brad Rimmer. Published by T&G Publishing, 2010.


Love, judiciously applied to almost any subject, can change everything. Love, palpable longing, and loss (the inevitable consequence of the first two qualities?) permeate Brad Rimmer's photographs in Silence. Rimmer is blessed, or cursed, with being an insider to this shrinking agricultural community. He left Wylie for the capital city of Perth in 1982, nineteen years old, on the heels of two siblings and in advance of his parents and another sibling's departure. In 2008, before he'd finished making these photographs, his grandmother died. As Rimmer put it, "Her death meant that returning to Wylie to complete the project was slightly depressing. The final connection I had to this place I once called 'home' was gone."

Slightly. I wonder if the people of Western Australia know they share the Midwestern American plains knack for understatement.

Silence, by Brad Rimmer. Published by T&G Publishing, 2010.

Silence, by Brad Rimmer. Published by T&G Publishing, 2010.

Jess, the heroic and wistful figure on the cover of Rimmer's book, regards her portrayer (and us) with a gaze that evokes The Last Picture Show. She's an Aussie Cybill Shepherd; along with her many youthful cohorts (far more under twenty-fives than over thirty-fives) in Rimmer's portfolio, she poses the question "Why stay?" The low sun, which draws their eyes outside of the frame, renders the silent land and faces with amazing, yet knowingly fleeting, grace. One can almost hear the curtains being drawn, because no one's there to clap. —George Slade

purchase book
George Slade , a longtime contributor to photo-eye, is the programs manager and curator at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. He continues to post content on his blog, re:photographica.
VIEWHIDE ALL COMMENTS [1]
now displaying: all comments

ADD A COMMENT
hey cool bcause me missed the xbition
Posted By cazz | July 31, 2010 at 5:09 AM
now displaying: the most recent comment
hey cool bcause me missed the xbition
Posted By cazz | July 31, 2010 at 5:09 AM
ADD A COMMENT


NOTE: Comments will not appear until they have been approved by our editors. Read more about our policy regarding comments.

One of our chief goals with photo-eye Magazine is to create a space where intelligent dialog about photography books can flourish. As such, we are excited about engaging directly with our readers and the larger online photo-community through interactive content such as these article comments. However, to best acheive an interesting, ongoing discourse, all comments will be published only after they have been vetted by the editors.

We will not edit anything that is posted, nor reject any comment because we disagree with it, we simply reserve the right to reject comments that we feel do not make a contribution or are designed to offend. All we ask is that comments are thoughtful and substantive.

Thank you.
* indicates a required field

Your Name/Pseudonym: *
please enter a name

Your Email: *
please enter an valid email addressplease enter an email address
This is for contact / verification only, your email will not be displayed or given out under any circumstances.

Your website:
must be a vaild URL (ex. http://www.yourwebsite.com)

Your Comment: *

please enter a comment

To help prevent auto-spamming
Please enter the text and/or numbers below, in order, left to right:
enter text from the image below



← Return to the Magazine front page
← Return to reviews
© photo-eye Magazine. This article is printed from photo-eye Magazine (http://www.photoeye.com/magazine/) and is intended for personal use. Please contact us if you would like permission to reprint this article for commercial or educational use. Text © by the author, all images © their respective owners. All rights reserved.
© PHOTO-EYE, LLC, 2022. All Rights Reserved Copyrights-Trademarks Privacy Policy Returns Policy Staff/Hours/Location 505.988.5152 info@photoeye.com