Whitney Biennial - Tam Tran

After seeing the Whitney Biennial, a showcase of contemporary artists, Tam Tran’s series of photographs stood out to me. Tran photographs her younger family member dressed in pajamas with a cape, holding a stick threateningly. In the different photographs the boy is yelling with the menacing ferocity of a war leader, or thrusting his stick in the air. The photos are in color, but appear to be slightly manipulated. The background colors are faded, and the bright colors of the boy’s pajamas have a washed out appearance. The pictures have a nostalgic quality. At one time the child’s 110% commitment to the poses and faces creates a real intensity but once the viewer notices the pajamas and the cape, it becomes more endearing. I also appreciated the old school dramatic quality that, the boy in costumes has, because of the serous angles of the photos it is almost insignificant in the beginning that the boy is very young. The view is guided directly to the ferocious face and expressions, and it seems as if the photographs might be still frames from a play. This creates an interesting tension between the simultaneous candid nature of the shot. The simplistic element of the visual content of the frame makes the shot more powerful. Through the drama, and whimsical elopements the most powerful effect of the photograph is the genuine and real feeling of the moment.