Alone Together (Paperback)

"POC"--which stands for "Piece of Cake"--is a group of 21 (at last count) young photographers from across Europe (Helsinki, Rouen, Dusseldorf, Vevey, Arles, Lisbon and London), connected by a shared aesthetic and a groundbreaking workshopping website. Through the nonprofit, artist-funded pocproject.com, created in 2002 by founding member Charles Freger ("Rishiki, 2Nelson, Lux"), the members of POC brainstorm and critique as they create. Then, at the same site, they post and sell their works: a new form of structured artistic community and marketplace all in one. The work that this prototype supports riffs on documentary themes, questioning photography as proof or truth. Between miniature ruins, deserted boardwalks, industrial waterfronts, adolescent musicians, battered rugby players and gendarme motorcycle acrobats, the work in "Alone Together" reminds viewers that imitating nature is the least of art's powers.