PATROLMEN

About the Exhibition

In analyzing the techniques of police in big cities, Jonathan Rubinstein points out that the “patrolman learns that he has the right to stare at anyone for as long as he wants” because officers look at people for insight into their intentions in ways that civilians cannot. Photography offers a similar right. It allows the viewer to stare, to look with a held gaze and burning intent, to see the topography of a person’s skin, the accumulations under their fingernails, every stray piece of hair. We look as if by staring we can actually reveal something about them.

The photographs are what Jeanne Randolph calls amenable objects. Their meaning is neither explicit nor disguised; the viewer’s reading neither reality nor fantasy; the evidence presented neither inner nor outer. The photographs offer no reassurance; they will absorb any story, including the next contradictory story.

About the Artist

Esteban Pulido uses photography’s concrete and abstract potential to photograph people. He holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the University of Oklahoma. His work has been exhibited in New York, Chicago, Kansas, and São Paulo. Esteban Pulido lives and works in Los Angeles and is the owner of Los Angeles Print Shop.