"The 1975 exhibition New Topographics signaled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas gave way to unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance. This restaging of the exhibition includes the work of all 10 photographers from the original show: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel (read more via SFMOMA)."
"The New Topographics : Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape" was a 1975 exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography (read more here). "The 1975 exhibition New Topographics signaled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictures of transcendent natural vistas gave way to unromanticized views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance. This restaging of the exhibition includes the work of all 10 photographers from the original show: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel (read more via SFMOMA)." Watch this video of Robert Adams talking about his work >> Art21, Robert Adams in "Ecology"
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That's a bit of a paradox, I know. There's really no such thing as a photograph of nothing. This is a framing for understanding images that might defy easy reading. These images, either through abstraction or overt banality, resist simple interpretation. They ask us to look, again, at something overlooked. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This article sheds some light on the allure of what could be termed "Photos of Nothing" >>> When most people think of a photograph they think of images, taken with a camera, of that which can be identified from this world—i.e. people, places or things. However, for most of photography's existence, there has been a parallel tradition of what is generally labeled "abstract photography," or photographs that purposefully stray from presenting things as immediately recognizable and veer towards the abstract. In their extreme form, these types of images can be understood—to borrow a term from abstract painting—as "non-objective," or containing nothing that can be immediately recognized. (Such paintings have also been called "pictures of nothing." To be specific, the phrase was used by a critic to describe the works of J.M.W. Turner and also served to title a series of collected lectures on the subject of abstract art by Kirk Varnedoe, a former curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.) In recent years, this tradition has seemed to attract exponentially more attention from artists. Maybe it is because we have too many (representative) images available to us online or it's a reaction to the huge popularity of large-scale, very realistic figurative work, or the influence of the abstract work of certain artists, like Thomas Ruff, on subsequent generations. Arguably, some of the most interesting photographers working today create non-objective photographs or pictures of nothing. And it seems like there is a new way to explore/picture this subject/technique monthly. For what it's worth, a few of the tendencies could be understood as... -An interest in light. For example, Alison Rossiter's imagery stems from her experiments with expired photographic papers and Barbara Kasten uses materials such as glass, mirrors, Plexiglas, and mesh, to make large-scale geometric sets, which play with shadow, light, and reflection. -An interest in visualizations of math and science. For example, Thomas Ruff's cycles are inspired by 19th century science books and are based on visualizations of “cycloids,” mathematical curves that are the product of rolling one curve along a second, fixed curve. -An interest in focusing very closely on a typically-recognizable object to the point that it becomes abstracted. For example, Daido Moriyama's patterned monochromes are close-ups of legs sheathed in tights. -An interest in decay and the photograph as a sculptural material as in Ryan Foerster's abstractions, portraits of friends he made that were destroyed (and inherently re-born) by the flooding and destruction of Hurricane Sandy. -An interest in textures. See, for example, Frank Thiel's photographs of weathered buildings. -An interested in abstracting history to encourage different perspectives. Farrah Karapetian's large-scale photograms focus on details of scenes and signs of protest. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This second article has some additional information and resources. Hiroshi Sugimoto Frank Theil Carrie Mae Weems Daido Moriyama Clar McWeeney Dino Kužnik Imogen Cunningham Kim Llerena Lee Friedlander Lewis Baltz Robert Adams Stephen Shore Margaret Bourke-White Ruth Bernhard Sarah Phyllis Smith William Eggleston Daniel Everett * Daniel Everett is an artist and professor at the university I attended, and I am a huge fan of his work. Please check out his website here *
"The home, both as structure and interior space, has been represented and examined in art history for thousands of years, from Roman illusionistic paintings of grand interiors to domestic rooms in Northern Renaissance painting. Since the mid-20th century, contemporary artists have often explored the motif of the home in an examination of social, political, economic, personal, and ideological discourse." — BYU MOA Exhibition, No Place Like Home, 9.18-12.5.2015 ANDREW WYETH EDWARD HOPPER JUSTIN WHEATLEY Justin Wheatley's website. VINCENT CAN GOGH CASEY JEX SMITH KOTA EZAWA TODD HIDO GREGORY CREWDSON "Brief Encounters" film. MITCH EPSTEIN MICHAEL EASTMAN GREG STIMAC EDWARD BURTYNSKY ROBERT ADAMS LEWIS BALTZ Wikipedia: Lewis Baltz BERND + HILLA BECHER Wikipedia: Bernd & Hilla Becher OLAFUR ELIASSON Your House, 2006 Olafur Eliasson's website. ROY LICHTENSTEIN JOEL SHAPIRO WOLFGANG LAIB PEPÓN OSORIO Art 21: Pepón Osorio PETER MENZEL BRYAN HUTCHISON Absent Structures (Provo, Utah), 2013 GORDAN MATTA-CLARK "A commentary on urban decay and the end of the American dream." Gordan Matta-Clark, Bronx Museum RACHEL WHITEREAD KRZYSZTOF WODICZKO DANA AWARTANI DO HO SUH Interview with Do Ho Suh on Art21 "At some point in your life, you have to leave your home. And whenever you go back, it’s just not the same home anymore. I think home is something that you carry along with your life." ANDREA ZITTEL IMMIGRATION |
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