The University of Toronto’s “We Are Continually Exposed to the Flashbulb of Death” exhibit showcases Allen Ginsberg’s photography from 1953-1996.
You’ve probably heard of Allen Ginsberg’s poems, but did you know that he was also a talented photographer? With a cheap camera, he spent his adult life photographing his friends and the places he visited with the same eye for detail apparent in his writing. At the University of Toronto’s exhibit titled “We Are Continually Exposed to the Flashbulb of Death”: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg (1953-1996), you’ll find a curated selection of photos including candid shots of Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, William S. Burroughs and other prominent members of the Beat scene.
There’s a photo of the view from Ginsberg’s longtime New York apartment that really resonates. A newspaper on the windowsill. Raindrops on the clothesline outside. It’s a photo anyone could have taken—and yet, somehow, not. Ginsberg manages to convey meaning even through the most mundane of images. Ginsberg’s photography looks the way his poetry sounds: a quick, very excited, occasionally blurry attempt to capture every important second of reality.
“We Are Continually Exposed to the Flashbulb of Death” follows the timeline of Ginsberg’s life and introduces you to his friends. The founding members of the Beat Generation slowly emerge and as you keep walking you see them grow old and disappear altogether–exposed to the flashbulb of death. From unseen speakers, Ginsberg’s poetry and music play on loop. If this exhibit feels a bit reminiscent of a memorial, it’s because, in a way, it is one. The theme of mortality is omnipresent.
This exhibition is a great introduction to Ginsberg’s work in general and a brief but beautiful look at the lives of some key members of the Beat Generation. Also, as Ginsberg probably would have wanted, it is a celebration of the importance of the moment. In his poem “A Desolation,” Ginsberg speaks about creating “an image of my wandering,” and with his photos he has done this in a literal sense—created a real and lasting image not only of his life but also of the lives of the people around him, just as he did with his words.
Read more about the UTAC’s Allen Ginsberg exhibition here.
The exhibition is free, and it will be on until December 6th, 2014.
