Lazhar Mansouri’s photographs are quite different. They are full of people, proudly posing, from Aïn Beïda, his Algerian hometown. Most are grouped by family, tribe or profession. They all stare out at us, dressed in their best, but their shoes are often old and worn, betraying their poverty. Nonetheless, they stand with dignity and seem contented. They are who they are -- they have a secure sense of identity. No modern society alienation, impersonality, uptightness and trickiness here, but traditional community coherence, individual integrity and straightforward, sympathetic presence. Mansouri doesn’t manipulate them–there are a few studio props (cheap curtains frame the figures and plastic plants accompany them, sometimes along with a prized possession)–but lets them be.
We are constantly invited to compare and contrast figures and photographs. Each invites us to construct a narrative, and the whole exhibition–only 55 of the photographs Mansouri made–invites us to weave the narratives together. Clearly each figure has a complex story to tell.
Lazhar Mansouri: Portraits of a Village, Mar. 15 - May 12, 2007, at Westwood Gallery, 568 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10012
