Examining how photography and imaging can drive social action and change is the theme behind Bending the Frame, a new exhibition on view at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Gulf + Western Gallery. Based upon a book of the same name by Fred Ritchin, dean emeritus of the International Center of Photography, Bending the Frame presents photography, video, film, books, and internet-based projects by a variety of U.S.-based and international photographers and visual artists. As with the book that inspired it, the exhibition presents strategies within visual art, documentary, and journalistic photography that, when combined with contemporary art practices, “bend the frame” with the intention of creating greater social impact and a wider discussion that may then lead to social change. Featured artists include Debi Cornwall, on torture at Guantánamo; the French-based collective #Dysturb, on contemporary events; Tim Hetherington’s video “Diary” on the idiosyncratic life of the war correspondent; Jennifer Karady on US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan; Gideon Mendel on worldwide flooding and climate change; Taryn Simon and Aaron Swartz on the vagaries of Internet imagery; and more.
