Photographer Kathy Sherman Suder gained international acclaim in 2004 for her poetic, oversized color close-ups of men boxing. Now, the Fort Worth native returns with an intimate sonnet to urban transit. The culmination of more than six years of photographing people riding the subways of London, New York and Tokyo, UNDERGROUND, Photographs by Kathy Sherman Suder, an exhibition of 12 oversized works at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art from March 15 to Aug. 17, reflects a symphony of performance. The exhibition is accompanied by the artist's new book, UNDERGROUND: London, New York, Tokyo.
"There's something compelling to me about the subway in much the same way I am fascinated by the intense physical interaction of boxing," Suder says.
"There is a democratic sub-culture in the underground. In their brief commute, people who might otherwise cross the street to avoid each other are pressed tightly together, sharing subway straps, forced to acknowledge strangers and share the same journey. If only we could travel through life in that same spirit."
For Suder, the exhibition is a homecoming. "It's an honor to have this exhibition take place at the Amon Carter Museum, which has one of the finest collections of American photography in the United States, and it's particularly meaningful to me to be returning to Fort Worth, my hometown," she said.
Walker Evans, Bruce Davidson and other respected photographers have made the subway their subject, capturing the fleeting, jumbled, anonymous parade of characters in the underground.Suder's project has been to transform their approach of passive observer into one of fellow traveler, she explains. "Rather than hiding my camera, I come out shooting, provoking a response-whether it be amusement, surprise or hostility. Often shooting at very close range, I break the unspoken rule of underground life that, despite our physical closeness, we ignore each other's presence."
Said John Rohrbach, senior curator of photographs at the Amon Carter Museum and curator of the exhibition: "In airplanes, buses, and trains, we face the backs of other chairs and look out windows to the passing street, land and sky. But on subways, we look inward and at each other, engaging with the humanity that surrounds and shifts before us. Suder conveys this interaction with expertise, delivering a mix of classes, races, ages and cultures as the trains pass from one neighborhood to the next. She uses the natural light of the subway to emphasize the bright color and graffiti aesthetic of life today, trying to be part of the interaction as much as record it."
Suder explains her approach by quoting the famous photojournalist Robert Capa, who once said, "If your pictures aren't good, you're not close enough." She wanted to ensure that not only did she get close enough, but by printing the images 50 X 72 inches, she invited viewers to step inside the cacophonous moving highway of life, where there's nowhere to turn away or hide.
But there also are scenes of joy, love and quiet solitude among Suder's photographs. Visit the show and see for yourself.
