Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish #02-04 2008 - 2011

Here we have Deborah Luster’s, “Tooth for an Eye: A Chorography of Violence in Orleans Parish #02-04,” and what strikes me is how Luster layers different ways of seeing. It is like a carefully constructed collage of vision. The stark black and white image centers on a street scene, bordered by a circular frame, an orb of reality, that is juxtaposed against a more traditional rectangular frame. This contrast creates a fascinating tension. The texture of the photograph itself, grainy and raw, speaks to the gritty reality of the scene it captures. Look at the shadow falling across the cracked pavement. It’s so solid it’s practically another object. This detail, so mundane, becomes incredibly potent. It makes me think of Robert Frank, another photographer who found beauty and pain in the everyday. Like Frank, Luster isn’t just showing us a picture. She’s showing us a way of seeing, a way of feeling. Ultimately, it's in this tension and ambiguity that the real power of the work lies.