Nina+Berman

Bauernfeind

=Nina Berman= For my art installation I have chosen contemporary photographer [|Nina Berman], whose work in currently on display at the [|Whitney]. I have decided to choose her because I like photography, especially when it deals with the social and political landscape of the United States. Although her most famous photography and the set on display at the Whitney is her //[|Marine Wedding]// piece, I think I will focus on her photographs of mega churches, a growing and somewhat kind of scary piece of American culture. In the article by Christian Viveros-Fauné he describes her as a new realist, focusing on reality rather than a lot of the other art going, that is very odd and very far from any reality.

[|Nina Berman's Website]

In this installation I want to focus on Berman's portfolio featuring [|mega churches] in the United States. In this portfolio she has about sixteen photos of various churches in the United States and some of the people associated with them. I find this phenomenon to be very interesting. People across the country but hundreds of thousands of dollars into these somewhat obscene places of worship that in my opinion are not really appealing to the eye the way older churches can be. Some of these mega churches have annual budgets reaching up to $70 million. Berman finds a way to show these people in their everyday lives without seeming exploitative. She also shows some of the architecture of these mega churches and how insane it can really get, looking at times like a Led Zeppelin concert from 1971.

Photos From the Mega Churches Portfolio
Here are two videos from youtube.com that relate to the subject matter of Berman's photographs. The top video is the trailer for the 2006 documentary //Jesus Camp//, this film depicts children attending a Christian summer camp where they are taught they can "take back America for Christ". The bottom video is a 60 Minutes piece on Joel Osteen, a non-denominational pastor and author who is pictured in him wife in the bottom-left picture above.
 * [[image:megachurch1.JPG width="376" height="259" align="center"]] || [[image:megachurch2.JPG width="386" height="258"]] ||
 * [[image:megachurch4.JPG width="384" height="257"]] || [[image:megachurch3.JPG width="388" height="261" align="center"]] ||

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I am not positive as to what Berman is trying to do with these photos other than depict a growing part of American life. However, as a viewer of these photos, it seems to me that the growing number of mega churches and evangelicals in the United States is somewhat terrifying to the rational growth of the country. With all this money that goes into to these giant odes to God and Jesus Christ couldn't we be doing much more productive things like saving the environment or donating this money to developing countries in need of food and medicine.

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Photojournalism Manifesto