Over the last year or so, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Michael Bühler-Rose. Michael is one of the most intelligent photographers I’ve met. He’s a great critical thinker and he’s always eager to discuss topics of photography. This has made for a few good conversations on bus rides between Boston and New York.

I was shocked to realize that I have never posted about Michael’s work on the blog, so I thought I’d post some now. At present, his website only features a single project entitled Constructing the Exotic. I’ll leave it to him to explain:

This series explores the conventions of the figure in painting and photography through the lens of historical colonial and native art. By placing the unfamiliar within the familiar the door is opened to questioning the identity of the “exotic other”.

In these images western women who were raised either within the Indian subcontinent itself or simply born into its socio-religious heritage become, in one sense, the “other”. Their placement, the familiar contemporary western cultural landscape, draws the viewer into their world and pulls at the seams of the notion exotic.

Here are two of my personal favorites from the series:

Vani, Alachua, FL., 2006 (from “Constructing the Exotic”)
© Michael Bühler-Rose

Chandra & Kalyani, Alachua, FL., 2007 (from “Constructing the Exotic”)
© Michael Bühler-Rose

Some of this work will be on display from July 8th to August 16h at Bose Pacia in a group show curated by Peter Nagy titled Neti, Neti (Not This, Not This). If you’re in New York, stop by and take a look.

See more of Michael’s work online here.

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