Walead Beshty’s series Travel Pictures comprises a collection of photographs of the Iraqi embassy in East Berlin, which was left abandoned and in ruin after German reunification in 1990. The series is notable for its exploration of the intersection between photography, travel, and globalization, and for its innovative use of photographic techniques. At first glance, the photographs in Travel Pictures appear to be straightforward depictions of despaired areas of the Iraqi embassy in East Berlin. However, on closer inspection, the photographs reveal a complex interplay of color, texture, and materiality that challenges the viewer's assumptions about the nature of photography.
The visual effect we see is a result of the negatives being sent through X-ray machines while Beshty traveled between LA and Berlin. The titles characterize how the works were made, whereby they are created from the “…name of the color present in the image according to the standard color centroid model of the NBS-ICC System and Nomenclature for Commercial Synthetic Dye Application (Fern, Fog, Granite, Marshes, Meadow, Mist, Rose, Sunset, and Violet reflect the names of the colors assigned to synthetic dyes used by commercial industries in products from furniture to industrial enamels) followed by the embassy address and a notation of multiple exposures to the film, the airport codes traveled through, and the dates traveled, along with the camera brand and type, and the airport baggage scanner brand and types which exposed the film.”i As such, the creation of Besthy’s work was influenced by international law in a similar way to how the fate of the Iraqi embassy was influenced by it.
Beshty completed the series Travel Pictures in 2012 by altering the original photo film. “Once the complete edition of the Travel Pictures was produced, the original negatives of these works were hole-punched, a method traditionally used to artificially limit the edition size of multiples by canceling originals so no further prints could be produced. These hole-punched negatives were then used to produce a new edition titled Travel Pictures, which are printed at the same size and scale of the original works as an extension of the previous series.”ii Beshty demonstrates how malleable the photographic medium is, and how visual effects can be manipulated years later through the process of printmaking.
“Travel Pictures” is a fascinating and thought-provoking series that offers a fresh take on the genre of travel photography. By challenging the viewers’ assumptions about photography and encouraging them to engage with the materiality and context of the medium, Beshty’s work offers a powerful critique of how images shape our understanding of the world around us.