REAL DETROIT 

Stage & Canvas  

by Robert del Valle

Like many photojournalists, Jeffrey Sauger acknowledges the debt owed to those who came before him. He is especially generous with praise for the photographers who chronicled the farmers and farmlands of Depression-era America. Their pictures — haunting glimpses of despair, hope, hunger and resolution — still strike an emotional chord with viewers today. They also prompted Sauger to commence a similar project in 1999. The results are now on display at the Museum of New Art (MONA) in Pontiac. Where Furrows Run Deep is a subtle (but also profound) examination of the African-American farmer and his precarious place in a vanishing landscape. Begun when he was a grad student at Ohio University, it was originally meant by Saugur to be nothing but "a visual anthropological account, unemotional and objective, recorded through the methodology of documentary photography." However, emotion and empathy inevitably colored the undertaking and Sauger admits that something more than anthropology was captured by his lens. "Through these images," he explains, "I hope for the audience to make a connection to the people who have opened their lives to me, to become more informed about the plight of the African American farmer, to acknowledge the existence of institutional racism that still pervades our society and to have an honest and open conversation about it."

still more: including Jeanette Strezinski...

MONA's Momentum

But wait — there's more! In addition to Where Furrows Run Deep, the space on Saginaw will also present a plethora of other delights that same evening. Jeanette Strezinski carefully folded her Works on Paper and unfurled them on the walls. A few might end up on the floor, as well — so tread carefully!

There will also be Sculpture and Drawings from Emily Nachison and an array of "quick studies" by an Instant Artist named Nobu Matsui.

The Detroit Contemporary Center of Photography (sponsored by and at the same address as MONA) will unveil a series of portraits that Paolo Morales, Erica Shires and Collin Lafleche took as "starting points for creating personal statements about themselves and their worlds."

And finally, MONA has seen fit to acknowledge both its many friends and the ubiquitous power of a certain networking tool. The Facebook Show is a panoply of mugs, avatars, profile pics and snapshots solicited by the museum for a nice scrapbook. We detected quite a number of familiar names like Gilda Snowden, Vanessa Merrill, Ian Swanson and others.

We also discovered that a certain RDW staff writer threw caution to the winds and donated his own Dorian Gray to the exhibit. Yes, that's his face. An ill-favored thing, but, whatever.

Opening reception June 19. 7 Saginaw St.:  detroitmona.com.

real detroit weekly - June 16, 2010