enigmas
Photographs by Andrew Feenberg
enigmas
Photographs by Andrew Feenberg
Copyright © 2005 by Andrew Feenberg
Design: Soyoung Park
Enigmas
Photographs by Andrew Feenberg
The walker in the city sees many things and understands
few of them. Snatches of conversation, glimpses of happenings, intuitions of relations pass in kaleidoscopic variation. Amidst this cascade of mostly trivial experiences
there are a few gems, moments of significance that
deserve to be remembered or perhaps photographed.
The significant moments are signalled by a shock, the
shock of the unexpected or bizarre or profound.
Shock appears in the writings of the culture critic Walter
Benjamin as an essential category of modern life. The city
is the place of chance encounter, of the stimulus of the
new, of the visible movement of time as fashions change
with startling rapidity. With Baudelaire as his guide,
Benjamin explores the world of the flaneur. Shock is the
emphatic presence of the crowd, the sudden glance of
recognition between strangers, the vacant lot where used
to be a building, the parade of bums and beggars.
The flaneur with a camera can record a small sample of
this rich field of urban life. The photographer edits reality, leaving context on the cutting room floor. Only the
essential moment remains, and it is often as incomprehensible as it is evocative. If its original shock value passes through the lens something is preserved from the
ephemera of the street. This exhibit presents the enigmatic results.
Painter Painted
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
1
Hidden Beauty
San Jose
2
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Blue Buddha
Santa Fe
3
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Buddha Watches
4
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
La Jolla
California
Reading
San Diego
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
5
Before
the Show
Paris
6
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Pride on Show
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
7
Dance of Color
San Diego
8
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Cafe Color
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
9
Line of Sight
Rome
10
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Steady Aim
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Nara
11
Long and
Winding
Marin
12
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Big Deal
enigmas
Santa Fe
Andrew Feenberg
13
Father and Daughter
14
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Napa
Saudade
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
15
Flying Fish
La Jolla
16
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Shut Out
Mexico City
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
17
Sweet Dreams
Paris
18
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Light and Shadow
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
La Jolla
19
Patience
San Diego
20
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Kenzo
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
21
Wedding
Coronado
22
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
No Stopping
San Jose
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
23
Notre Dame
24
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Paris
Romance
La Jolla
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
25
Before the Concert
26
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Tokyo
Hands
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Paris
27
The Point
La jolla
28
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Writ Large
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
29
Larger
30
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Paris
Masks
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
31
Eclipse
Paris
32
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
A-paco-lypse
Paris
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
33
The Constant
Spectator
Paris
34
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Cine Citta
Rome
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
35
The Power
of Art
Tokyo
36
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Success
Tokyo
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
37
Anima
Paris
38
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Girl Power
Tokyo
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
39
Little Devils
Paris
40
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Mc Do
Kyoto
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
41
Nude
Paris
42
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
The Apero
Vaison-la-Romaine
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Andrew Feenberg
43
Drinking Buddies
La Jolla
44
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
Boshi
Tokyo
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
45
Kimono Time
Tokyo
46
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
So Lovely
Tokyo
enigmas
Andrew Feenberg
47
The Guys
Tokyo
48
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Andrew Feenberg
Book End
La Jolla
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Andrew Feenberg
49
Photo: Sharon Weremiuk
The enigmas exhibit opened
February 3, 2005
at the Exposure Gallery
851 beatty street, Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada.
Andrew Feenberg is Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy
of Technology in the School of Communication of Simon
Fraser University. He has taught at San Diego State University,
the University of California, Irvine, the University of Paris,
the University of Tokyo, Duke University and the State
University of New York at Buffalo.
He is the author of Heidegger and Marcuse, Transforming
Technology, Questioning Technology, Alternative Modernity,
Lukács, Marx and the Sources of Critical Theory, co-author of
When Poetry Ruled the Streets, and co-editor of Technology and
the Politics of Knowledge, Community in the Digital Age, and
Modernity and Technology. He lives in Vancouver, British
Columbia and La Jolla, California.