Donigan Cumming Gimlet Eye

Product Description Opposing reactions and interpretations have cut a singular path for Cumming's controversial work. Not only is it contested for what it depicts, there is no consensus as to the nature of the photographs or even the intentions of the photographer. Who are these dispossessed people, damaged and broken both physically and emotionally; alcoholics and drug addicts, delusional and impoverished? Are they mere subjects, recorded by Cumming in the midst of their lives, or do they actually participate in the process and help orchestrate the results? Are the settings "real" or are they tableaux? Is Cumming a witness or is he a director? When he repeatedly returns to the same people and the same rooming-house culture, is he driven by the desire to record the social injustices that are obvious in their lives or is it a macabre Theatre of Cruelty meant to shock and entertain? In his passionate essay Adams shows that in fact Cumming does neither - or rather both. Calling the work "docutheatre", the About the Author Born in Danville Virginia in 1947 and a longtime resident of Montreal, Donigan Cumming has exhibited his photographs and screened his videos internationally, most recently at the New York Video Festival. He has been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation and in 1998 he won a Telefilm Canada award for Best Canadian Production (Short and Medium-Length section). Donigan Cumming conceived and designed Gimlet Eye which is a co-publication with Chapter, Cardiff.