The Ambiguity of Power

“Power is a potent word with two wholly contradictory meanings.  For some it represents an exercise of control and domination over others that leaves the victim feeling imprisoned.  For others it means opportunity and the ability to make radical change.  When these two interpretations collide the result can be a shift in power relations, whether between the governors and the governed, between different ideologies, between economics and environmentalism, between men and women, or even between whole regions of the world.”

—from “The Power Paradox” by Phil Thornton for his essay published in the book Power by the European publishing group teNeues to accompany the Prix Pictet:Power exhibition of photographs at the San Diego Museum of Photographic Arts. The exhibition will be open to the public until May 18, 2014.   

Prix Pictet, an annual juried prize, uses photography as an instrument to shed light on important social and environmental issues. Each year it selects one theme on which to focus. The first three themes were Water, Earth and Growth. Now in its 4th installment, Prix Pictet has selected Power as the subject of this year’s exhibition.  

My photographs today are images of a wall at San Diego’s Ocean Beach… a wall built to hold back the sea’s waves in a storm. Together the images seem to me to be a metaphor for eroded power in human communities and institutions.