Phyllis Galembo: Primitives

The original culture of a place is the most charming. All along, cultures all over the world have been spread again and again. For example, we all know Picasso, Braque's paintings, fashion master Irving Penn's photographs, contemporary famous tourist attractions, international art festivals, and local customs are introduced in many magazines, such as National Geographic.

In American photographer Phyllis Galembo's works on "primitive" man, we are surprised to see the scenes we once missed. In today's industrialized society, these pictures only exist in our imagination: a simple supernatural life, even linked to the magical. You may think that the customs of these distant countries have been explored by explorers, photographers, film directors, and anthropologists. By now, they have fully described and recorded this exoticism.

But never mind, what we see in Galembo's entire work is her love for the clothing and decoration of the people here. They come from different places in Africa and wear these clothes during religious rituals or celebration ceremonies. Galembo wrote: This art of clothing can bring together people from different regions with different religious beliefs. Galembo's images appear disturbing. The photographer avoids some stylistic effects of the picture, allowing the viewer to directly face this living "sculpture". These exaggerated costumes are decorated with beads, shells, feathers, or waste materials, and various shapes can remind people of the scenes at Paris haute couture shows.

Her works have been collected by many public and private art institutions, including the Capital Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Philadelphia Art Museum, the Library of Congress of the United States, Chazen Art Museum, TANG Museum, New York Public Library, and Polaroid Corporation.