The Wake

Politics have the power to invade the sanctity of a citizen’s privacy when controversial issues warrant public attention. Photography can capture this along with the emotion lost in the political conflict. This is the case with Terry Gydesen’s exhibit Justice For All, on display at the Christensen Center Art Gallery at Augsburg College until Feb 18.

Gydesen’s exhibit portrays two decades worth of conflict between gay rights activists and their opponents, contrasted with reactions from apathetic policy-makers.

While some photos portray compassion and happiness, others are wrought with frustration and pain. Toward the middle of the exhibit is a striking image of a man holding a sign amongst a crowd. His sign, “No queers or baby killing feminazis,” displays the harsh intolerance that comes from xenophobia.

“Death penalty for homosexuals 2004,” depicts the magnitude of this prejudice with an image from a rally at the Capital of about 3,000 people against gay marriage. “It was the most afraid I’ve ever felt at any event I’ve photographed over the years,” Gydesen recalls. “I thought about Germany at the time of Hitler’s rise to power and thought it must have felt the same way then for people threatened by rhetoric.”

The final composition mixes the realty of the picture’s setting with the details viewable in the print. Placed on the streets of New York during a rally against Bush, the image shows an ad on a bus shelter with a man approaching on the sidewalk. The ad consists of a body-builder in front of a blue backdrop and the words “Vote 2004.” But since the man approaching is overweight instead of perfectly toned one could interpret it as a message about image, more specifically what American’s perceive as the perfect image. “Vote 2004” is actually part of the text “Vote for Mr. Gay NY 2004,” bringing to the table a completely different context.

Gydesen describes this piece as “one of the most successful, in that it’s loaded with many different elements and can be interpreted in different ways.”

“My favorite images are ones that are like a puzzle,” she adds, “an image that instantly grabs you but has additional subtle details to give lasting intrigue.”

The exhibit creates an emotional montage of conflict surrounding the fight over equal rights for the GLBT community. It includes images from the 1987 March on Washington and the 2004 legislative session, at which gay marriage was a hot issue. Some of the images stray from an otherwise chronological order to create emotionally poignant pairings that reflect the contrast in drastically different worlds of thought.

While Gydesen shoots with a subjective camera, her exhibit is an expression of not only her views but also those of a vast group of activists and affected groups. “I do get caught up in it, and that’s why I’m not a photojournalist—I’m not neutral.” In the end, Gydesen’s exhibit raises the question: “Can a nation really ever have justice for all?”