PHOTO-EYE: Susan Lipper’s Favourite Book from 2019: The Canary and the Hammer

Description

Lisa Barnard has a keen awareness of how inevitable changes of time and place will interact with her—by design—cobbled together and subjective cautionary tale. Though she proceeds with a playful set of arresting and seductive images that strategically investigate both the physical medium of photography and the nature of “documentary” while conveyed with large doses of whimsy. Defiantly, Barnard creates an overarching story all but destined to fall apart due to changing realities and hidden truths. Yet our strong appreciation needs to remain for her outsized ambition to create a knowing overall allegory for our misguided times that equally sheds light on global politics and the plight of women.