Category: digital photography

Exhibition: ‘Picturing the Border’ at the Cleveland Museum of Art

“Change emanates from within through the actions and innovations of social agents… human beings, artists!” Dr Marcus Bunyan

Exhibition dates: 21st July, 2024 – 5th January, 2025

Curator: Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Cleveland Museum of Art

 

Miguel Fernández de Castro (Mexican, b. 1986) 'Grammar of Gates' / 'Gramática de las puertas' 2019 from the exhibition 'Picturing the Border' at the Cleveland Museum of Art, July 2024 - January 2025

 

Miguel Fernández de Castro (Mexican, b. 1986)
Grammar of Gates / Gramática de las puertas
2019
Courtesy of the artist
© Miguel Fernández de Castro

 

 

I wrote this philosophical text as a flow of consciousness, a layered exposition of my thoughts on space, photography, identity and belonging. I hope I have done the subject justice… in freedom.

 

within, bridge and fissure

The struggle for identity, for culture, for nation is a struggle inscribed in space. So observes Wendy Garden.1

The spaces that bodies move in, through and over are fluid spaces, permeable spaces, fragmentary and transitory spaces. They are also spaces of displacement and distance which form a kind of ‘alienation’ which derives from the Latin alienare: to render foreign, other.2

Thus the “border” between one and the other – that fluid penumbra (a peripheral or indeterminate area or group), that oscillation of energy across the line – must be constructed to be legible and fixed by those that seek to control such spaces, through the imposition of a coded representation of space itself.3 The border wall between Mexico and America is one such imposition of a coded representation of space which, seeks to control an/other. It is a “direct translation of ideology and temporality into material and spatial culture”3 which masks as much as it represents, through a selective representation of history and memory.

Through systems of surveillance (e.g. CCTV, aerial surveillance, phone taps) and control (e.g. police, government, the judiciary), in which one reinforces the other in a never ending circle, and in the of naming of the ‘other’ (Foucault) – those with privilege embedded and thus emboldened within colonial and imperial systems seek to confirm hegemonic structures of power: for example, who can travel where, who has access adequate to health care, who is seen as an ill/legal alien. “Although Foucault rarely alludes to it in a clear-cut manner, what he describes in Discipline and Punish is the formation of the discursive regime of surveillance which is a central element in the expression of the modern state.”4

But we can counter this narrative.

In his influential book Thirdspace (Blackwell, 1996), the American postmodern political geographer and urban theorist Edward Soja (1940-2015) proposes the concept of First, Second and Thirdspace to demarcate the various spatial dimensions. Firstspace “is the ‘real’, the concrete materiality of spatial forms of the world, while Secondspace interprets this reality through imagined representations of spatiality.”5 Much early photographic practice is rooted in Firstspace, in the passive representation of an undeniable truth, the veracity of the image and its representation of the referent: this existed because it was captured by the camera.

Thirdspace on the other hand, “contains both real and imagined spaces simultaneously. Thirdspace permits an intermingling of the knowable and the unknowable, the real and the imagined by the experiences, events and political choices that are shaped by the interplay between centres and peripheries (Soja, Thirdspace 1996: 31). According to Soja, Thirdspace is a place where issues of race, class and gender can be addressed simultaneously without privileging one over the other. It is a space which enables an-‘other’ way of understanding and acting to change the spatiality of human life (Soja, Thirdspace 1996: 10). Photographic space, as a Thirdspace, is a site from which to contest the dominant ideologies of Firstspace. This has important ramifications for ‘others,’ especially those disenfranchised by colonialism.”6

Thus photographic Thirdspace is an amorphous space of both the real and imagined and is the vibration of energy, doubled! – the real and imagined spaces of everyday life, and the real and imagined spaces of photography through which we can contest the contexts of becoming, belonging.

These Thirdspaces of the real and imagined are not spaces of universalising totality which then would be constitutive of history or memory, but in-between spaces in which differences, memories and histories are not denied or negated, hidden, forgotten or repressed. It is not the segregation of black and white, either/or, but the grey areas in-between that interest me: those fluid zones of difference – think Tarkovsky’s film Stalker 1979, in which a guide helps a writer and a professor to infiltrate a restricted area, the Zone.

“The Thirdspace – in which “everything comes together… subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract and the concrete, the real and the imagined, the knowable and the unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential, structure and agency, mind and body, consciousness and the unconscious, the disciplined and the trans-disciplinary, everyday life and unending history”a – allows that none of these couples, such as the phenomenal and the noumenal, can be divided by an either/or attitude. “This… does not mean differences are denied, instead, it most of all means the inevitable reciprocity of any pair of definitions. In such a case both leave a mark on the other. It is a question of both-and – how each of the pair influences the other”b.”7

Both leave a mark on each other. And it is in this marking that social and political relations can be reconfigured, “in such a way as to suspect, neutralise, or invert the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror or reflect.”8 Thus, the physical aspects as well as the attitudes and habitual practices of ‘space’, the arrangements of space and the socialisation of space, “is an order that is itself always undergoing change from within through the actions and innovations of social agents. In short, all ‘space’ is social space ….”9

Following, we can say that social and spatial relationships are dialectically inter-reactive, interdependent (Soja).

“Social and spatial relationships are dialectically inter-reactive and interdependent. Cultural landscapes reflect social relations and institutions, and they shape subsequent social relations. While elites create spatial inequalities and homogeneity simultaneously through their hegemony, non-elites create counter-hegemonic landscapes which reflect their own values. Behavioural resistance to the dominant culture leads to distinctive cultural landscapes: for example, cultural resistance by Maori.

Indeed, dominant ideologies such as those which are religious, political, economic, ethnic or racial, continually define or redefine ‘deviance’ or ‘otherness’ to maintain their power and landscapes of dominance. Space and place are key factors in the definition of deviance and of order and propriety.”10

But as Wael Salah Fahmi insightfully observes, we must not fall into the idea that juxtapositions of social space are just alternating choices of “either/or” or acts of simple resistance: “But “juxtaposition” might imply alternating choices, an “either/or.” Perhaps instead we might think of Lefebvre’s image of interpenetrating spaces, one violating another, yet rising up from within the very “fundament” of the space that wishes to ignore its existence. Here, perhaps, is a spatial dialectic that does not fall into a binary opposition of simple resistance.”11

Spaces that rise up from within each other!

Change that emanates from within through the actions and innovations of social agents… human beings, artists!

Here, the thoughts of that glorious Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator Coco Fusco (b. 1960) – quoted by Jean Fisher – whose work explores gender, identity, race, and power through performance, video, interactive installations, and critical writing are particularly cogent.

“Two imperatives are set in motion: to alter the perceptions of those with privileged access to hegemonic structures of power, and to change the sense of disempowerment of those deprived of political agency. “What is more fundamentally at stake than freedom,” Fusco argues, “is power – the power to choose, the power to determine value, and the right of the more powerful to consume without guilt”: entitlements that Eurocentric cultures have assumed for themselves at the expense of others. These aims are advanced through an exploration of the relationship between the politics and practices of cultural difference and social inequity, in which intellectual, experiential, and artistic alliances are built across nationalistic and geographical boundaries …””12

As Wael Salah Fahmi notes, “spaces constantly juxtapose themselves one against the other” – in real life, in art, in photography. The media saturated world of the “total flow” of images is resistant to interpretation, yet in real life – and in this exhibition – the juxta/position (mapping of space), juxta/posing (posing for the camera) of one space against another, “of image to image calls to attention a line of conflict, either fissure or bridge.”13

The images in this posting draw our attention to fissures (George Rodriguez, Susan Meiselas, Ada Trillo) and bridges (Graciela Iturbide, Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello with Colectivo Chopeke). They also possess a multivalent narrative, allowing the work to be accessible to different interpretations, meanings, and values: a new door or path opens up on the basis of very diverse needs and objectives. These images, untraceable gifts from photography itself, are marks of candour and authenticity, both descriptions of a stable object and the fleeting glance (Firstspace and Thirdspace) interacting upon each other. They are an investigation into our fluid identity and shifting place in our worlds.14

In spatial dialectics and in the nuances of contradictions we proceed onwards, paying no heed to the dangers which lie ahead, journeying on to fulfil our desires: to be seen, to be heard, in our difference and uniqueness, enacting change from within.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

Word count: 1,435


PS. My friend and Melbourne artist Elizabeth Gertsakis insightfully observes, “The philosophical arguments resonate with the vacillation of the photograph meanings/non-meanings. Spaces that implode from within to further generate the unknown which even in definition become dispersed. The photography around the border/wall is beautiful as well as tortuous as well as unspoken.”

Well said Liz 🙂

 

Footnotes

1/ Wendy Garden. “Photographic Space and the Indian Portrait Studio,” in On Space Issue Seven, Winter 2007

2/ Rob Shields. Lefebvre, Love and Struggle. London: Routledge, 1999, pp. 40-41.

3/ Ibid., pp. 79-80.

4/ Jon Stratton. The Desirable Body. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996, p. 19

5/ Garden, Op cit.,

6/ Garden, Op cit.,

7/ A: Edward W. Soja. Thirdspace. Malden (Mass.): Blackwell, 1996, p. 57; B: Mika Hannula. “Third space – a merry-go-round of opportunity,” on the Kiasma Magazine website No. 12, Vol. 4, 2001 [Online] Cited 01/05/2016. No longer available online quoted in Marcus Bunyan. “Thirdspace,” on the Marcus Bunyan website 2021 [Online] Cited 29/11/2024

8/ Michel Foucault. “Of Other Spaces,” in Diacritics Spring 1986, p. 24

9/ Shields, Op cit., pp. 154-155

10/Alexander Trapeznik. “Introduction,” from Public History Review, Vol. 13, 2006, p. 2

11/ Wael Salah Fahmi. “Reading of Post Modern Public Spaces As Layers Of Virtual Images and Real Events,” from The 37th International Planning Congress “HONEY, I SHRUNK THE SPACE” Planning in the Information Age. Utrecht, The Netherlands, 16-20 September, 2001

12/ Jean Fisher. “Witness for the Prosecution: The Writings of Coco Fusco,” in Coco Fusco. The Bodies That Were Not Ours. London: Routledge, 2001, pp. 226-227

13/ Wael Salah Fahmi, op cit.,

14/ Marcus Bunyan. “Thirdspace,” on the Marcus Bunyan website 2021 [Online] Cited 29/11/2024


Many thankx to the Cleveland Museum of Art for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

“And do you know what “the world” is to me? Shall I show it to you in my mirror? This world: a monster of energy, without beginning, without end; a firm, iron magnitude of force that does not grow bigger or smaller, that does not expend itself but only transforms itself; as a whole, of unalterable size, a household without expenses or losses, but likewise without increase or income; enclosed by “nothingness” as by a boundary; not something blurry or wasted, not something endlessly extended, but set in a definite space as a definite force, and not a space that might be “empty” here or there, but rather a force throughout, as a play of forces and waves of forces, at the same time one and many, increasing here and at the same time decreasing there […]”


Frederick Nietzsche, The Will to Power

 

“Edward Soja employs the concept of First, Second and Thirdspace to demarcate the various spatial dimensions. For Soja Firstspace is the ‘real’, the concrete materiality of spatial forms of the world, while Secondspace interprets this reality through imagined representations of spatiality (Soja 1996: 6). Much early photography participated in perpetuating the belief that photographic space was a Firstspace. The camera lens merely passively and objectively recorded all that was placed before it. However even in the nineteenth century, many practitioners acknowledged the ability of photographs to lie or distort reality.

For Soja, Thirdspace contains both real and imagined spaces simultaneously. Thirdspace permits an intermingling of the knowable and the unknowable, the real and the imagined by the experiences, events and political choices that are shaped by the interplay between centres and peripheries (Soja, Thirdspace 1996: 31). According to Soja, Thirdspace is a place where issues of race, class and gender can be addressed simultaneously without privileging one over the other. It is a space which enables an-‘other’ way of understanding and acting to change the spatiality of human life (Soja, Thirdspace 1996: 10). Photographic space, as a Thirdspace, is a site from which to contest the dominant ideologies of Firstspace. This has important ramifications for ‘others,’ especially those disenfranchised by colonialism. It may account for the rise of photography as the preferred medium for many artists today interested in issues of identity and the colonial gaze. …

Photographic space can create a spatial reality which allows those who access it to contest, enlarge or in someway recreate their experiences of Firstspace. It never attempts to close off subjectivity or pin identity down, but rather allows fluid and transitory experiments with other ways of being that can then be carried over and inform experiences of Firstspace.”


Wendy Garden. “Photographic Space and the Indian Portrait Studio,” in On Space Issue Seven, Winter 2007. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

Ronald Rael (American, b. 1971) and Virginia San Fratello (American, b. 1971) with Colectivo Chopeke. 'Teeter-Totter Wall' 2019

 

Ronald Rael (American, b. 1971) and Virginia San Fratello (American, b. 1971) with Colectivo Chopeke
Teeter-Totter Wall
2019
Single-channel video with sound; 4:13 minutes
Courtesy Rael San Fratello/Ronald Rael & Virginia San Fratello
© Ronald Rael & Virginia San Fratello
Photo: Ronald Rael

 

 

About the exhibition

Picturing the Border presents photographs of the US-Mexico borderlands from the 1970s to the present taken by both border residents and outsiders. They range in subject matter from intimate domestic portraits, narratives of migration, and proof of political demonstrations to images of border crossings and clashes between migrants and the US Border Patrol. The earliest images in this exhibition form an origin story for the topicality of the US-Mexico border at present, and demonstrate that the issues of the border have been a critical point of inquiry for artists since the 1970s. Many serve as counter-narratives to the derogatory narratives of migration and Latino/as in the US that tend to circulate in the mass media.

Capitalising on the prevalent issues of the border today, Picturing the Border aims to spark vital conversations of what constitutes citizenship, as well as complex negotiations of personal identity as it relates to the border. The exhibition shows through these images that Latinx, Chicano/a, and Mexican photographers have significantly rethought what defines citizenship, nationality, family, migration, and the border beyond traditional frameworks for decades.

Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art website

 

George Rodriguez (American, b. 1937) 'Los Angeles police arrest a Chicano student protester in the neighbourhood of Boyle Heights' 1970 from the exhibition 'Picturing the Border' at the Cleveland Museum of Art, July 2024 - January 2025

 

George Rodriguez (American, b. 1937)
Los Angeles police arrest a Chicano student protester in the neighbourhood of Boyle Heights
1970
Gelatin silver print

 

Susan Meiselas (American, b. 1948) '7.30am Arrest of undocumented worker by U.S. Border Patrol in downtown San Diego, CA' 1989

 

Susan Meiselas (American, b. 1948)
7.30am Arrest of undocumented worker by U.S. Border Patrol in downtown San Diego, CA
1989
From the series Crossings
Gelatin silver print
44.5 x 73.7cm
Courtesy of and © Susan Meiselas/Magnum Photos

 

 

Photojournalism from the US-Mexico border currently emphasises stark, divisive images: walls, fences, surveillance devices, border patrols, “coyotes,” and crossing migrants. Yet some of the most compelling artwork dealing with this region attests to several generations of cross-border familial relationships, personal identities that carry markers of both countries, and hybrid cultures that meld influences from the United States, Mexico, and farther south in Latin America. This more complex work demonstrates how border residents have resisted being defined by the border and its conflicts, concentrating instead on a deterritorialised notion of home, along with a sense of self that often transcends both nationalism and gender politics.

The photographs and video works included in Picturing the Border offer a more nuanced portrayal of life in the borderlands. The exhibition positions the US-Mexico border as a cultural framework and highlights how Latinx photographers – many of whom are border residents themselves – have instead formulated alternative photographic vocabularies with regard to place, identity, and race. Photographs range in subject matter from intimate domestic portraits, extended family gatherings, and political demonstrations to images of border crossings and clashes between migrants and the US border patrol. The earliest images in this exhibition form an origin story for the topicality of the US-Mexico border at the present moment and demonstrate that the issues of the border have been a critical point of inquiry for artists since the 1970s.

The exhibition is accompanied by an important scholarly publication that brings new insights to the subject of Latinx photography and the history of the US-Mexico border. Picturing the Border has also brought about the opportunity to grow our permanent collection in this area, precipitating recent acquisitions by Laura Aguilar and the donation of an important work by Ada Trillo, who has witnessed firsthand the perils of the unbelievably extensive journey migrants have taken from Central America to the United States.

Although Cleveland is far from the southern border, stories of global migration are woven throughout the CMA’s encyclopeadic collection as well as throughout the community in Northeast Ohio. Picturing the Border puts faces on stories and brings to life the various threads that stitch together an ever-growing understanding of, and empathy for, the migrant experience.

Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. “Picturing the Border,” on the Cleveland Museum of Art website June 1, 2024 [Online] Cited 19/07/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Teddy Cruz (American born Guatemala, b. 1962) and Fonna Forman (American, b. 1968). Installation view of 'Radicalizing the Local: 60_Miles of Trans-Border Urban Conflict' 2008
Teddy Cruz (American born Guatemala, b. 1962) and Fonna Forman (American, b. 1968). Installation view of 'Radicalizing the Local: 60_Miles of Trans-Border Urban Conflict' 2008
Teddy Cruz (American born Guatemala, b. 1962) and Fonna Forman (American, b. 1968). Installation view of 'Radicalizing the Local: 60_Miles of Trans-Border Urban Conflict' 2008

 

Teddy Cruz (American born Guatemala, b. 1962) and Fonna Forman (American, b. 1968)
Installation view of Radicalizing the Local: 60_Miles of Trans-Border Urban Conflict
2008
Commissioned by the US Pavilion for the Venice Architecture Biennale of 2008
Prints from a digital file; dimensions variable
© Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman
Image courtesy the Cleveland Museum of Art

 

 

Featuring more than four dozen photographs, Picturing the Border aims to spark vital conversations of what constitutes citizenship, as well as complex negotiations of personal identity as it relates to the border. Through these images the exhibition shows that Latinx, Chicano/a, and Mexican photographers have significantly rethought what defines citizenship, nationality, family, migration, and the border beyond traditional frameworks for decades.

Opening on July 21, 2024, in the Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Gallery, this free exhibition will be on view through January 5, 2025. From intimate domestic portraits, narratives of migration, and political demonstrations to images of border crossings and clashes between migrants and the US Border Patrol, this one-of-a-kind exhibition presents photographs taken by both border residents and outsiders, many of whom are Latinx, Chicano/a, and Mexican, and tells the story of the US-Mexico borderlands from the 1970s to the present.

“Borders have long been spaces of contention,” says Nadiah Rivera Fellah, curator of contemporary art. “The mainstream media in the United States tends to present nationalistic narratives about imminent threats at the border. This reductive and divisive narrative does not often portray the identities, languages, cultures, and social ties among communities. The photographs featured in this exhibition tell a different story that can serve as a counter-narrative and timely new perspective on life in this region.”

The earliest images in Picturing the Border form an origin story for the topicality of the US-Mexico border at present and demonstrate that the issues of the border have been a critical point of inquiry for artists since the 1970s. In addition, they showcase artists who were ahead of their time in presenting ideas about spaces and exclusion as they relate to issues of the borderlands and Latinx identities in the United States.

Exhibition catalogue

A beautifully illustrated 134-page exhibition catalogue accompanies Picturing the Border by Nadiah Rivera Fellah, curator of contemporary art, with contributions from Natalie Scenters-Zapico.

The US-Mexico border has undergone dramatic changes over the past six decades, becoming increasingly industrialised, urbanised, and militarised, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 and the War on Terror. Mainstream and conservative news coverage has often reinforced or exacerbated such developments, characterising the border as out of control and describing migrants in derogatory terms, in the process fuelling xenophobic sentiment.

A foil to this reductive and dehumanising narrative, this presentation of Latinx photography offers more nuanced portrayals of life in the borderlands. Ranging from the 1970s to the 2020s, images by Louis Carlos Bernal, Graciela Iturbide, and Laura Aguilar, as well as emerging artists such as Ada Trillo, Guadalupe Rosales, and Miguel Fernández de Castro display alternative photographic vocabularies regarding place, identity, and race. With subject matter spanning from intimate domestic portraits and youth counterculture to border crossings and clashes involving the US Border Patrol, this richly illustrated volume also features scholarly essays and new work by fronteriza poet Natalie Scenters-Zapico, providing new insights on this fraught and misunderstood region.

Press release from the Cleveland Museum of Art

 

Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, b. 1942) 'Cholos, White Fence, East Los Angeles' 1986 from the exhibition 'Picturing the Border' at the Cleveland Museum of Art, July 2024 - January 2025

 

Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, b. 1942)
Cholos, White Fence, East Los Angeles
1986
Gelatin silver print
Framed: 57.5 x 42.2cm (22 5/8 x 16 5/8 in.)
Sheet: 35.2 x 27.7cm (13 7/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Image: 32 x 21.9cm (12 5/8 x 8 5/8 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift of Leslie and Judith Schreyer and Gabri Schreyer-Hoffman in honour of Virginia Heckert
© Graciela Iturbide

 

Graciela Iturbide’s Cholo/as series from 1986 Los Angeles is perhaps the best encapsulation of the show’s thesis. The women in Cholos, White Fence, East Los Angeles told Iturbide that they wanted to be photographed under a mural of some mariachis. In fact, these were images of Emiliano Zapata, Benito Juárez and Pancho Villa. We might as well admire their freedom from context. After all, isn’t America all about freedom?

Dan Duray. “One Fine Show: ‘Picturing the Border’ at the Cleveland Museum of Art,” on the Observer website 09/06/2024 [Online] Cited 01/11/2024

 

Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, b. 1942) 'Rosario y Boo Boo en su casa, Los Angeles' (Rosario and Boo Boo in their home, Los Angeles) 1986

 

Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, b. 1942)
Rosario y Boo Boo en su casa, Los Angeles (Rosario and Boo Boo in their home, Los Angeles)
1986
Gelatin silver print

 

 

“Without the camera you see the world one way, with it, you see the world another way. Through the lens you are composing, dreaming even, with that reality, as if through the camera you are synthesising who you are… So you make your own image, interpreting.”


Graciela Iturbide

 

 

Ada Trillo (Mexican American, b. 1976) 'Sleeping by the River, Tecun-Uman Guatemala' 2020

 

Ada Trillo (Mexican American, b. 1976)
Sleeping by the River, Tecun-Uman Guatemala
2020
Digital print
Framed: 54.4 x 79.7cm (21 7/16 x 31 3/8 in.)
Image: 50.8 x 76.2cm (20 x 30 in.)
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Artist
© Ada Trillo

 

 

As Los Angeles is located over 100 miles north of Mexico, Iturbide’s work demonstrates that while the border is a physical space, its communities defy any single geographical boundary.

This argument echoes in photos made over 1,500 miles away by photographer Ada Trillo, who grew up on the liminal lands between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. In her photobook on view in the exhibition, titled La Caravana del Diablo (2022), the artist documents three journeys: two alongside migrant people in caravans attempting to cross into Mexico on their way to the US border and a third aboard La Bestia, the infamous freight train that hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants ride each year to the north of Mexico – risking injury and death in the process. Trillo’s works are primarily populated by people from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, representing deep friendships the artist formed over days and weeks of gruelling travel. …

Trillo’s works, like those of other artists in the exhibition, capture how the border forces migrants and other communities to weave their stories within a maddening architecture of violence that is both systematic and capricious. “Many of the photographers in this show were inspired by one another,” Rivera Fellah explained. “And many have used their politically engaged photographic practices as a counter-narrative to derogatory images of the border that have circulated in the media since the 1970s and 1980s.”

Kayla Aletha Welch. “Photography Show Aims to Upend Xenophobic Border Narratives,” on the Hyperallergic website July 18, 2024 [Online] Cited 01/11/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

'Ada Trillo – La Caravana del Diablo' 2021

 

Ada Trillo – La Caravana del Diablo
Hardcover/Sewn bound
192 pages/30.5 x 24.8cm
Language: English
ISBN: 978-94-91525-93-3
November 2021

 

Every day, thousands of people leave in processions from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador via Mexico for America because of flaring violence, murder (on women) and poor economic conditions in their own country. A journey covering hundreds of kilometres, often on foot, full of fear of being arrested and sent back. Some people even ‘disappear’. Under the Trump administration, despite fierce opposition, ‘The Wall’ was built to keep these immigrants out of ‘The Northern Triangle’, making their passage into America even more perilous.

Photographer Ada Trillo considers it her mission to portray this distressing situation. In ‘La Caravana del Diablo’ she doesn’t look away but confronts us. Ada shows that each of these thousands of migrants is a human being. A human being with a family, with fear, hope and dreams.

Text from the Houston Centre for Photography website

 

 

More than three thousand kilometers of border have unified the United States and Mexico since the mid-nineteenth century. Some 8,000,000 people live, sometimes in suspense, on both shores of a division as arbitrary as it is controversial. A dividing line that has changed throughout history, affecting those who have remained on one side or the other.

This same space, mythical, liminal, polemic, has become, in the last half-century, above all, one of the most watched and controlled landscapes of the entire planet. It has also become one of the most vulnerable: millions of Mexicans, Central Americans, and many other nationalities have crossed – or tried to cross – the border.

Picturing the Border, a photographic exhibition curated by Nadiah Rivera Fellah[2] and open to the public from July 21, 2024, to January 5, 2025, at the Cleveland Museum of Art, shows other aspects of those living there. The exhibition gathers images taken between the 1970s and the present by North American and Mexican artists such as Louis Carlos Bernal, Graciela Iturbide, Laura Aguilar, Ada Trillo, Guadalupe Rosales, and Miguel Fernández de Castro. The photographs present alternative proposals for understanding and reading the border by placing the people who inhabit it in the spotlight, thus challenging fixed and stereotypical conceptions of identity and culture.

In this exhibition, as in real life, the border stands as a third space, in the same sense proposed by Homi Bhabha: that intermediate space of cultural encounters and dis-encounters from which a new site of enunciation emerges and in which the binary is deconstructed[3]. Edward Soja, in an approach similar to Bhabha’s, regarding the ‘hybridity’ of the spaces of encounters of cultures, defines the thirdspace as the place where “everything comes together… subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract and the concrete, the real and the imagined, the knowable and the unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential, structure, and agency, mind and body, consciousness and the unconscious, the disciplined and the transdisciplinary, everyday life and unending history.”[4] According to Gloria Anzaldúa, “the convergence [of Mexico and the United States] has created a shock culture, a border culture, a third country, a closed country”[5].

But, what do the exhibited photos tell us about this ‘third space,’ this ‘third hybrid country’ that exists between the United States and Mexico? That third country is occupied not only by illegal migration and drug trafficking – the primary approach from the media – but also by symbols deeply rooted in Mexican and border life, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Cholo culture, the use and appropriation of iconic North American products (such as cars) by Mexican Americans, the Day of the Dead celebrations. These photos open a window for us to look, with respect and wonder, at the life that goes on in private and public spaces, often in a very different way than that imagined by those of us who are not directly associated with that geography. It also reminds us of the student and labor protests and strikes that have taken place in that region.

Damaris Puñales-Alpízar. “The Border That Unites: Picturing the Border, at the Cleveland Museum of Art,” on the CANJournal website October 29, 2024 [Online] Cited 01/11/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

[3] See: Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. Routledge, New York, 1994.
[4] See: Soja, Edward W. Thirdspace. Malden (Mass.): Blackwell, 1996, p. 57.
[5] This phrase presides over the exhibition.

 

Laura Aguilar (American, 1959–2018) 'Yrenia Cervantes' 1990

 

Laura Aguilar (American, 1959–2018)
Yrenia Cervantes
1990
Gelatin silver print
Image: 22.9 x 30.5cm (9 x 12 in.)
Paper: 27.9 x 35.6cm (11 x 14 in.)
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Karl B. Goldfield Trust
© Laura Aguilar Trust

 

Far from being a flash in the proverbial pan, the border has long incarnated questions about the arbitrary nature of insider and outsider dynamics, legality, and citizenship.

Among the works exploring these themes is the late photographer Laura Aguilar’s black-and-white portrait “Yrenia Cervantes” (1990), in which the titular Chicana muralist and artist stares at her reflection in her dresser mirror. Her bedroom is decorated in the elaborate style of an altar: It includes photos, iconography, and handmade objects. Cervantes is simultaneously of the border and beyond it – the viewer can’t easily determine to which side she belongs.

Kayla Aletha Welch. “Photography Show Aims to Upend Xenophobic Border Narratives,” on the Hyperallergic website July 18, 2024 [Online] Cited 01/11/2024

 

Louis Carlos Bernal (American, 1941-1993) 'Albert and Lynn Morales, Silver City, New Mexico' 1978

 

Louis Carlos Bernal (American, 1941-1993)
Albert and Lynn Morales, Silver City, New Mexico
1978

 

Louis Carlos Bernal (American, 1941-1993) 'La Reina de mi Vida' (The Queen of my life) 1983

 

Louis Carlos Bernal (American, 1941-1993)
La Reina de mi Vida (The Queen of my life)
1983
Gelatin silver print

 

Louis Carlos Bernal (American, 1941-1993) 'Untitled [Undocumented worker holding Huelga flag at United Farm Workers Demonstration, El Mirage, Arizona]' Negative 1978, printed 2016

 

Louis Carlos Bernal (American, 1941–1993)
Untitled [Undocumented worker holding Huelga flag at United Farm Workers Demonstration, El Mirage, Arizona]
Negative 1978, printed 2016
Digital inkjet print
40.6 x 40.6cm (16 x 16 in.)
Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Louis Carlos Bernal Archive, Courtesy of Lisa Bernal Brethour and Katrina Bernal
© Lisa Bernal Brethour and Katrina Bernal

 

Ricardo Valverde (American/Chicano, 1946-1998) 'Whittier Blvd' 1979 from the exhibition 'Picturing the Border' at the Cleveland Museum of Art, July 2024 - January 2025

 

Ricardo Valverde (American/Chicano, 1946-1998)
Whittier Blvd
1979
Gelatin silver print

 

Exhibition catalogue showing on the cover a photograph by Ricardo Valverde titled 'La Reina' (The Queen) 16th September 1976

 

Exhibition catalogue showing on the cover a photograph by Ricardo Valverde titled La Reina (The Queen) 16th September 1976

 

 

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Exhibition: ‘Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place’ at the Denver Art Museum

Exhibition dates: 10th March – 20th October, 2024

Curators: Curator of Photography, Eric Paddock, in collaboration with Kimberly Roberts, Denver Art Museum Curatorial Associate, and Lauren Thompson, Senior Interpretive Specialist

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the installation 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020 from the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum, March - October, 2024

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)

From the installation In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)

2017-2020

Pigmented inkjet print

© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

 

There are some stunning photographs in this exhibition but their “formula” is well known – aerial photographs of the blighted landscape etched by both geological and human forces (a la Edward Burtynsky, Richard Woldendorp et al) paired with objective, frontal “dead pan” portrait photographs (a la Thomas Ruff, Rineke Dijkstra et al), both forms of topographical mapping (of the land and of the face) – images which attempt to interrogate “the impact of uranium, coal, oil, and natural-gas extraction on the American Southwest and its Indigenous inhabitants.”

This is strong work but it begs the question: what fresh insight are these photographs giving us into the object of the photographers attention, other than the specifics of “American Southwest” and “Indigenous inhabitants” which turn out to be conceptually and visually generic? Is it necessary for everything to be new again or can work such as this stand in its own right and not just be an echo of what has come before. For the general public the work might seem fresh and new but for the informed observer this is well trodden, indeed trampled ground.

The press release states that “The project reflects on the resilience of Indigenous people in the face of threats to the culture, spirituality, and health.” I don’t feel that with these photographs. Where is the art that expresses through a partnership with the photographer the eloquent, unique voice of the Indigenous inhabitants of this ancestral landscape, its spirit and its fire?

As with any art please make up your own mind.

Dr Marcus Bunyan


Many thankx to the Denver Art Museum for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing the opening wall text

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing the opening wall text

 

Installation views of the exhibition Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place at the Denver Art Museum showing the opening wall text (below)

 

 

Thirst | Exposure | In Place presents photographs from three projects Fazal Sheikh made on the Colorado Plateau from 2017 to 2023. The portraits, landscapes, and testimonies make visible the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change.

Exposure examines the impact of uranium, coal, oil, and natural-gas extraction on the American Southwest and its Indigenous inhabitants. Sheikh partnered with Utah Dine Bikeyah – a coalition among the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni tribes – and with Indigenous elders and scientists form Princeton University to address the region’s hazardous waste and pollution left by short-sighted development and poorly remediated industrial sites. The project reflects on the resilience of Indigenous people in the face of threats to the culture, spirituality, and health.

In place evokes the enduring landscape of the Bears Ears region in Utah, while Thirst presents a selection from a new series about the Great Salt Lake, which is shrinking due to dwindling rain and snowfall. As the lake dries up, winds may carry clouds of toxic sediment from the lake bed – by-products from mining, agriculture, and urban development – across the valley and beyond.

Opening wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Denver Art Museum Talk with Fazal Sheikh March 9, 2024

Photographer Fazal Sheikh speaks about his recent work in the Four Corners region and at the Great Salt Lake, in connection with his exhibition Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place. His photographs address the consequences of industrial land use, engage questions about water use and climate change, and reflect on the ongoing relationship between people and nature. Sheikh discusses the origin of each series, his immersion in the landscapes and communities he photographed, and his collaborations with writers, scientists, and Indigenous community members that are woven throughout this work.

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' 2022

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' 2022

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' 2022

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' 2022

 

Installation view of the exhibition Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series Thirst: Great Salt Lake 2022

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' November 2022 from the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum, March - October, 2024

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the series Thirst: Great Salt Lake
November 2022
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' November 2022

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the series Thirst: Great Salt Lake
November 2022
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' November 2022

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the series Thirst: Great Salt Lake
November 2022
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the series 'Thirst: Great Salt Lake' November 2022November 2022

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the series Thirst: Great Salt Lake
November 2022
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

 

Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place is an exhibition created from three projects photographer Fazal Sheikh made on the Colorado Plateau from 2017 to early 2023. Sheikh’s portraits and landscapes shed light on the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change.

Born in 1965 in New York City, Sheikh creates images of displaced communities and marginalised people that prompt awareness of the world beyond the museum. The photographs in Thirst ǀ Exposure ǀ In Place expose indelible marks on the Colorado Plateau and American Southwest landscape that have been etched by both geological and human forces. Through this beautiful and sometimes frightening new work, Sheikh encourages viewers to witness the consequences of the past and imagine the shape of the future.

The exhibition presents Sheikh’s recent work in three interrelated sections: Thirst is a new series of aerial photographs that document the decline of the Great Salt Lake in northeast Utah, which is shrinking due to overconsumption and dwindling rain and snowfall. Exposure examines the impacts of uranium, coal, oil and natural-gas extraction on the American Southwest and on its Indigenous inhabitants. In Place evokes the enduring landscapes of the Bears Ears region in Utah, bringing Sheikh’s photographs together with contributions from scientists and Indigenous communities in and around Bears Ears in southeastern Utah.

Visitors will reflect upon the transformation – and often devastation – of these landscapes in the context of the past, present and future, while considering the juxtaposition of beauty and catastrophe, as well as intimate, human-scale stories and those spanning vast geological eras and changes.

Text from the Denver Art Museum website

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Exposure' 2019 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Exposure' 2019 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'Exposure' 2019 

 

Installation view of the exhibition Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series Exposure 2019

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) 'Mexican Hat Uranium Mill Disposal Cell, Mexican Hat, Utah, 37°8'0.88"N/109°52'28"W' From the series 'Exposure' 2017

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
Mexican Hat Uranium Mill Disposal Cell, Mexican Hat, Utah, 37°8’0.88″N/109°52’28″W
From the series Exposure 2017
Pigmented inkjet print
Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979
Image courtesy and © Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) 'Norman Sam (Diné), Lifelong Shepherd, Montezuma Creek, Aneth Chapter, Southeastern Utah' From the series 'Exposure' 2019

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
Norman Sam (Diné), Lifelong Shepherd, Montezuma Creek, Aneth Chapter, Southeastern Utah
From the series Exposure 2019
Pigmented inkjet print. Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979
Image courtesy and © Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) 'Lola Yellowman (Diné), Widow of Uranium Miner John Guy, Cane Valley–Monument Valley, Navajo Nation' From the series 'Exposure' 2019

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
Lola Yellowman (Diné), Widow of Uranium Miner John Guy, Cane Valley–Monument Valley, Navajo Nation
From the series Exposure 2019
Pigmented inkjet print
Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979
Image courtesy and © Fazal Sheikh

 

Lola Yellowman’s Testimony

“The medicine men told our men not to work in the mines, that it was dangerous, but the men needed to support their families and had no choice … My husband, John Guy, worked in the mines like my father. He would arrive home during his lunch break with his clothes caked in uranium dust, and I cleaned those clothes in our home every day. The children played on the tailings pile, but no one from the company ever told us the dangers they were being exposed to.”

Wall text from the exhibition

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) 'Chapita Wells Oil and Gas Field, Uintah Range, Utah, 40°4'10"N/109°27'26"W' From the series 'Exposure' 2017

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
Chapita Wells Oil and Gas Field, Uintah Range, Utah, 40°4’10″N/109°27’26″W
From the series Exposure 2017
Pigmented inkjet print
Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979
Image courtesy and © Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) 'Jonah Yellowman (Diné), Spiritual Advisor to Utah Diné Bikéyah, Cane Valley – Monument Valley, Navajo Nation' From the series 'Exposure' 2022

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
Jonah Yellowman (Diné), Spiritual Advisor to Utah Diné Bikéyah, Cane Valley – Monument Valley, Navajo Nation
From the series Exposure 2022
Pigmented inkjet print
Image courtesy and © Fazal Sheikh

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020
Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

Installation view of the exhibition 'Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place' at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

 

Installation view of the exhibition Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place at the Denver Art Museum showing work from the series In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region), 2017-2020

 

 

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) presents Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place, an exhibition created from three projects photographer Fazal Sheikh made on the Colorado Plateau from 2017 to early 2023. Sheikh’s portraits and landscapes shed light on the far-reaching consequences of extractive industry and climate change. Thirst ǀ Exposure ǀ In Place will open March 10, 2024, and will be on view through October 20, 2024, in the museum’s Photography galleries, located on level 6 of the Martin Building, and will be included with general admission.

Born in 1965 in New York City, Sheikh creates images of displaced communities and marginalised people that prompt awareness of the world beyond the museum. The photographs in Thirst ǀ Exposure ǀ In Place expose indelible marks on the Colorado Plateau and American Southwest landscape that have been etched by both geological and human forces. Through this beautiful and sometimes frightening new work, Sheikh encourages viewers to witness the consequences of the past and imagine the shape of the future.

“Through expansive aerial shots and intimate portraits, Fazal Sheikh documents these regions and their people with solidarity and honesty,” said Christoph Heinrich, Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum. “The Colorado Plateau is a region deeply impacted by climate change and economic development. This exhibition offers a nuanced view into the past, present and future lives of its inhabitants.”

Sheikh is best known for his deeply humane photographs of refugees and migrants displaced by war and famine. Focusing on the United States for the first time, Sheikh explores how Indigenous people and the lands they call home have been affected by industrial growth and government policy.

“The aerial photographs in this exhibition remind us of the great age and natural beauty of the Colorado Plateau,” said Eric Paddock, Curator of Photography at the DAM and curator of this exhibition for Denver. “They create an awareness of deep human and geological time and raise questions about the future of the region. In that context, Sheikh’s portraits and accompanying text affirm local communities’ need to protect their sacred spaces and encourage wider recognition of that need.”

The DAM exhibition presents Sheikh’s recent work in three interrelated sections:

Thirst is a new series of aerial photographs that document the decline of the Great Salt Lake in northeast Utah, which is shrinking due to overconsumption and dwindling rain and snowfall. As the lake dries up, winds carry clouds of toxic sediment – by-products from mining, agriculture and urban development – from the lakebed, across the valley and beyond.

Exposure examines the impacts of uranium, coal, oil and natural-gas extraction on the American Southwest and on its Indigenous inhabitants. Sheikh partnered with Utah Diné Bikéyah – a coalition among the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Zuni tribes – and with Indigenous elders and scientists from Princeton University – to address hazardous waste and pollution left across the region by short-sighted development and poorly remediated industrial sites. The project reflects on the resilience of Indigenous people in the face of threats to their culture, spirituality and health.

In Place evokes the enduring landscapes of the Bears Ears region in Utah, bringing Sheikh’s photographs together with contributions from scientists and Indigenous communities in and around Bears Ears in southeastern Utah. Visitors are surrounded by images made at a close distance and from high in the air. Sixty-three large colour photographs show the tremendous geological variety and the long cultural continuities of the Four Corners region.

Visitors will reflect upon the transformation – and often devastation – of these landscapes in the context of the past, present and future, while considering the juxtaposition of beauty and catastrophe, as well as intimate, human-scale stories and those spanning vast geological eras and changes.

Jonah Yellowman, spiritual advisor for the Utah Diné Bikéyah intertribal coalition and one of its founding members, will present an offering that represents his Navajo (Diné) spirituality and a deep connection to the land. This offering will be present in the gallery during the run of the exhibition.

Sound recordings taken from seismometer readings by University of Utah geologist Jeffrey Ralston Moore will resonate throughout the gallery space. They represent the otherwise inaudible vibrations of rock formations on the Colorado Plateau.

Taken together, the photographs and collaborations in Thirst | Exposure | In Place lay bare the indelible marks etched on the landscape by geological and human forces. Sheikh asks us to witness the consequences of what has passed and imagine what is yet to come.

Sheikh will speak about his recent work in the Four Corners region and at the Great Salt Lake, in connection with his exhibition in a lecture event at the DAM on March 9, 11am – 12pm. The lecture will take place in the Sharp Auditorium, in the lower level of the museum’s Hamilton Building. Sheikh will discuss the origin of each series, his immersion in the landscapes and communities he photographed and his collaborations with writers, scientists and Indigenous community members that are woven throughout this work. This exhibition follows the Denver Art Museum’s 2017 presentation of Common Ground: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh, 1989-2013.

Fazal Sheikh: Thirst | Exposure | In Place is organised by the Denver Art Museum. The exhibition is presented by Jane Watkins, with additional support from the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.

The exhibition was curated in Denver by Curator of Photography, Eric Paddock, in collaboration with Kimberly Roberts, Denver Art Museum Curatorial Associate, and Lauren Thompson, Senior Interpretive Specialist.

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the installation 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the installation In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)
2017-2020
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the installation 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the installation In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)
2017-2020
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965) From the installation 'In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)' 2017-2020

 

Fazal Sheikh (American, b. 1965)
From the installation In Place (Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, Four Corners Region)
2017-2020
Pigmented inkjet print
© and courtesy Fazal Sheikh

 

 

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Exhibition: ‘Suburbia. Building the American Dream’ at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB

“Photographs posit a reality that promotes the dream, that verifies the dream, as ‘an offer you can’t refuse’.” Dr Marcus Bunyan

Exhibition dates: 20th March – 8th September, 2024

Curators: Philipp Engel and Francesc Muñoz

 

'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' exhibition poster

 

Suburbia. Building the American Dream exhibition poster

 

 

An offer you can’t refuse

“The “American dream” can be summed up in a mental image that seems frozen in time: a home of one’s own, surrounded by lawns, with a pool in the back garden and a couple of cars slumbering in the garage… Suburbia. Building the American Dream draws us into the imaginary of the idyllic family home and shows how this lifestyle has been sold and promoted by fiction and the entertainment industry.” (Text from the CCCB website)

To me, there has always be something slightly askew, slightly out of kilter about the “American dream”. It promotes a generalised simulation of a imaginary reality, sold as a lifestyle, more fiction than fact. It is the ghost of desire that haunts the everyday reality of life, entirely on the side of demand: I want therefore I must have.

This desire must be satiated in the nuclear family, the white picket fence, the idyllic family home, the loveable children – as much a surface that reflects the approbation of others as for the sustenance of the self. As Anthony Giddens observes we are inescapably involved in a

“‘reflexive project of the self’: this project is reflexive because it involves unremitting self-monitoring, self-scrutiny, planning and ordering of all elements of our lives appearances and performances in order to marshal them into a coherent narrative called ‘the self’. We have to interpret the past and plan the future in relation to an identity we are attempting to constitute in a particularly immediate and transient social present. Consumerism is central to this self-obsession. This is partly because we not only have to choose a self, but (as Foucault’s line of argument also indicates) have to constitute ourselves as a self who choses, a consumer.”1

The American Dream endeavours to direct the identity we are attempting to constitute (through consumerism), so that it fits into a particularly conformist idea of a wholesome life: patriarchal, hegemonic, puritan (most important in America), god fearing, white – a particularly hyperreal simulation of a world that never existed in the first place. An imaginary construction.2

Photographs reinforce this “imaginary” state of being, this desire for the American Dream. As the wonderful Victor Burgin observes,

“The structure of presentation – point-of-view and frame – is intimately implicated in the reproduction of ideology (the ‘frame of mind’ of our ‘points-of-view’). More than any other textual system, the photograph presents itself as ‘an offer you can’t refuse’. The characteristics of the photographic apparatus position the subject in such a way that the object photographed serves to conceal the textuality of the photograph itself – substituting passive receptivity for active (critical) reading. … With most photographs we see, […] decoding and investiture takes place instantaneously, unselfconsciously, ‘naturally’; but it does take place – the wholeness, coherence, identity, which we attribute to the depicted scene is a projection, a refusal of an impoverished reality in favour of an imaginary plenitude. The imaginary object here, however, is not ‘imaginary’ [as in fictive] in the usual sense of the word, it is seen, it has a projected image.”3 (My bold and italics)

The photographs of the American Dream, then, deny an impoverished reality in favour of a desired imaginary plenitude. You too can live the dream, because you have seen the evidence of the projected image, and this imaginary identification can have very real effects.

In the desire for the dream we witness (elsewhere in the world) the egocentric obsession of some of the builders in the British series “Grand Designs” where people mortgage themselves up to the hilt, become sick, have marriage breakdowns and can’t finish the project, because of a dream… to build huge houses with 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms that no one in their right mind needs to build for 2 people. Or the case of the Australian Melissa Caddick who, in a Ponzi scheme stole A$30 million from investors, including her friends and family, in order to appear a successful business woman. “Caddick used the proceeds of her crimes to acquire “all the trappings of wealth” and that her “success was all a façade and the financial services business was an elaborate front for Ms. Caddick’s Ponzi scheme”.”4

Ego is reinforced by the image reflected back to us by the photograph.

Christopher Lasch comments that, “The proliferation of recorded images undermines our sense of reality. As Susan Sontag observes in her study of photography, “Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras.” We distrust our perceptions until the camera verifies them. Photographic images provide us with the proof of our existence, without which we would find it difficult even to reconstruct a personal history…”5

Photographs posit a reality that promotes the dream, that verifies the dream, as ‘an offer you can’t refuse’.

Thankfully, some of the contemporary artists in this posting (I particularly like the work of Weronika Gęsicka) undermine the utopian ideal through wit, humour and critical inquiry.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

 

1/ Anthony Giddens. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991

2/ “In sociology, the imaginary as a Lacanian term refers to an illusion and fascination with an image of the body as coherent unity, deriving from the dual relationship between the ego and the specular or mirror image… “The term ‘imaginary’ is obviously cognate with ‘fictive’ but in its Lacanian sense it is not simply synonymous with fictional or unreal; on the contrary, imaginary identifications can have very real effects.””

David Macey, “Introduction”, Jacques Lacan, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis. London, 1994, p. xxi  quoted in “Imaginary (sociology)” on the Wikipedia website [Online] Cited 01/09/2024

3/ Victor Burgin (ed.,). Thinking Photography. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1982, pp. 146-148.

4/ Farid Assaf SC quoted in Kate McClymont. “Melissa Caddick’s ‘trappings of wealth’ a front for her Ponzi scheme”. The Sydney Morning Herald 29 June 2021 in “Melissa Caddick,” on the Wikipedia website [Online] Cited 01/09/2024

5/ Christopher Lasch. The Culture of Narcissism. W.W.Norton and Company, New York, 1978, p. 48.


Many thankx to the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

 

Inside the exhibition: Suburbia. Building the American Dream 

Philipp Engel, curator of the exhibition “Suburbia”, examines the origin and vast expansion of residential neighbourhoods in the United States, an urban model centred on constructing large swathes of single-family homes on the outskirts of cities. Engel reflects on the allure that suburban landscapes have stirred in Western culture while highlighting the main issues and contradictions of the model, including segregation, safety paranoia and unsustainable consumption of water and energy.

 

Introduction

Greg Stimac (American, b. 1976) 'Chandler, Arizona' 2006 From 'Mowing the Lawn' portfolio from the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB, March - September, 2024

 

Greg Stimac (American, b. 1976)
Chandler, Arizona
2006
From Mowing the Lawn portfolio
Impressió digital Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago

 

 

Who hasn’t longed for the American dream? A big house with a garden, a swimming pool and a couple of cars in the garage. A quiet, safe place to live as a family, close to nature in a people-friendly neighbourhood. This exhibition traces the cultural history of a lifestyle ideal that has been endlessly reproduced on television, in advertising and in cinema, and analyses the validity and the most controversial aspects of its urban planning model.

Suburbia. Building the American Dream draws us into the imaginary of the idyllic family home and shows how this lifestyle has been sold and promoted by fiction and the entertainment industry. The exhibition goes back to the origins of residential neighbourhoods in the early nineteenth century, explains how they developed massively in the 1950s, and reviews the economic, political and social context of their relentless expansion across the United States.

Now, when more and more families are pursuing their own version of the dream on the outskirts of cities, it is a good moment to analyse the contradictions of an urban planning model based on social, ethnic and gender segregation.

The dream of living in a house with a swimming pool is still very much alive today and has been exported all over the world. The exhibition shows the impact of this highly unsustainable model, based on constant car use, with examples of developments around Barcelona and Madrid.

With abundant historical material, period documentaries, photographs, paintings, films and series, novels and magazines, works of art and everyday objects, the exhibition places us in the mental paradise of the suburb and invites us to rethink the value of the city and public space today.

Suburbia. Building the American Dream presents the work of foremost creators who, from different points of view, help us to take a critical look at the famed American way of life: Jessica Chou, Gregory Crewdson, Thomas Doyle, Gerard Freixes, Rodrigo Fresán, Gabriele Galimberti, Weronika Gesicka, Benjamin Grant, Todd Hido, Joel Meyerowitz, Matthias Müller, Blanca Munt, Alberto Ortega, Bill Owens, Sheila Pree Bright, León Siminiani, Todd Solondz, Amy Stein, Greg Stimac, Angela Strassheim, Deborah Stratman, Ed & Deanna Templeton, Kate Wagner and Christopher Willan.

Text from the CCCB website

 

Joel Meyerowitz (American, b. 1938) 'Land. Provincetown' 1976 from the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB, March - September, 2024

 

Joel Meyerowitz (American, b. 1938)
Land. Provincetown
1976
Archival pigment print
Collecció Pancho Saula i Michelle Ferrara / Galeria Alta, Andorra

 

Joel Meyerowitz (American, b. 1938) 'Dusk, New Jersey' 1978

 

Joel Meyerowitz (American, b. 1938)
Dusk. New Jersey
1978
Archival pigment print
Collecció Pancho Saula i Michelle Ferrara / Galeria Alta, Andorra

 

 

The “American dream” can be summed up in a mental image that seems frozen in time: a home of one’s own, surrounded by lawns, with a pool in the back garden and a couple of cars slumbering in the garage. Suburbia. Building the American Dream traces the cultural history of a lifestyle ideal shared far and wide by literature, television, advertising and cinema, and analyses the most controversial aspects of an urban planning model that has spread beyond US territory and reached our shores. Journalist Philipp Engel curates this exhibition with geographer Francesc Muñoz collaborating as adviser on the model in the local context.

Suburbia. Building the American Dream draws us into the imaginary of the idyllic family home and shows how this lifestyle has been sold and promoted by fiction and the entertainment industry. The exhibition goes back to the origins of residential neighbourhoods in the early nineteenth century, explains how they developed massively in the 1950s, and reviews the economic, political and social context of their relentless expansion across the United States.

Since the 1990s most of the American population has lived in this sprawling urban mass that has continued to spread, even beyond US borders. At a time when more and more families are pursuing their own version of the dream on city outskirts, the exhibition analyses the contradictions of an urban planning model based on social, ethnic and gender segregation. It also shows the impact of this highly unsustainable model, based on constant car use, with examples of developments around Barcelona and Madrid. With abundant historical material, photographs, paintings, audiovisuals, literature, works of art and everyday objects, the exhibition situates us in the mental paradise of the model of residential development inspired by American suburbia, and invites us to rethink the value of the city and public space today.

Suburbia. Building the American Dream decodes an almost abstract landscape that is still valid in pop culture. It does so through the work of foremost creators who help us take a critical look at the famed American way of life. It includes works by Jessica Chou, Gregory Crewdson, Thomas Doyle, Gerard Freixes, Gabriele Galimberti, Weronicka Gęsicka, Benjamin Grant, Todd Hido, Joel Meyerowitz, Matthias Müller, Blanca Munt, Alberto Ortega, Bill Owens, Sheila Pree Bright, León Siminiani, Amy Stein, Greg Stimac, Angela Strassheim, Deborah Stratman, Ed & Deanna Templeton, Kate Wagner and Christopher Willan, among others.

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing photographs by Charlotte Brooks

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing visitors looking at satellite images of US cities and suburbs that show their grid layout

 

Installation views of the exhibition Suburbia. Building the American Dream at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing in the second image photographs by Charlotte Brooks (below); and in the bottom image, visitors looking at satellite images of US cities and suburbs that show their grid layout
© Alice Brazzit, CCCB, 2024

 

Charlotte Brooks (American, 1918-2014) '[Image from LOOK - Job 57-7621 titled Myers family]' 20th December 1957

 

Charlotte Brooks (American, 1918-2014)
[Image from LOOK – Job 57-7621 titled Myers family]
20th December 1957
Film negative
Look magazine photograph collection (Library of Congress)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing photographs by Gregory Crewdson

 

Installation view of the exhibition Suburbia. Building the American Dream at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing photographs by Gregory Crewdson (below)

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled (Dream House)' 2002

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled (Dream House)
2002
Digital C-print
29 x 44 inches

 

American photographer Gregory Crewdson is best known for his uncanny images of deceptively serene suburban life.  Using Hollywood film techniques and elaborate sets, Crewdson creates what he calls “frozen moments”: meticulously staged scenes whose narrative meaning remains a mystery.  Throughout this series, special attention is paid to light.  The twilight setting favoured by the photographer functions as a metaphor, an eerie evocation of the darkness on the edge of town.

Crewdson created this twelve-part portfolio, Dream House, as a commission for The New York Times Magazine in 2002.  The cinematic character of these frozen vignettes is underscored by the use of Hollywood actors (Gwyneth Paltrow, Tilda Swinton, and Philip Seymour Hoffman among others) whose celebrity contrasts with the “Anytown” anonymity of their environments.

Text from the Mutual Art website

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Julianne Moore (Dream House)' 2002

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Julianne Moore (Dream House)
2002
Digital C-print
29 x 44 inches

 

Sections of the exhibition

Planning A Dream

When the Industrial Revolution reached the USA in the first half of the 19th century, big cities became engines of progress, but they were also seen as dangerous places, in contrast with the opulent nature of the New World. With the emergence of the railway, the tram and the automobile, the mobility revolution prompted the gradual colonisation of city outskirts, transforming the countryside into residential neighbourhoods.

From Llewellyn Park (New Jersey) to Tuxedo Park (New York), throughout the 19th century the first gated communities began to pop up across the United States. At the end of the century, after the West was won, the appearance of the tram gave the middle classes access to the periphery, giving rise to a new type of housing that led to an orderly arrangement of city grids. But it wasn’t until the popularisation of the famous Ford Model T that the US landscape was radically transformed, crisscrossed by roads that became freeways. The automobile became a symbol of freedom, marking the birth of the suburbs that were to spring up everywhere.

This first section includes historical material like the original lithograph View of New York by John William Hill (1836); The American Woman’s Home by Catharine Beecher, the bible of “domestic feminism”; a Ford T Touring (1923) produced by General Motors, and films like The Suburbanite (1908), among other Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton classics.

 

Alexander Jackson Davis (American, 1803–1892) 'Villa for David Codwise, near New Rochelle, NY (project; elevation and four plans)' 1835

 

Alexander Jackson Davis (American, 1803–1892)
Villa for David Codwise, near New Rochelle, NY (project; elevation and four plans)
1835
Pen and ink, watercolour, graphite
Sheet: 14 5/16 x 9 in. (36.4 x 22.9 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1924
Public domain

 

Alexander Jackson Davis (American, 1803-1892) 'Ericstan, for John J. Herrick, Tarrytown, New York (perspective)' 1855

 

Alexander Jackson Davis (American, 1803–1892)
Ericstan, for John J. Herrick, Tarrytown, New York (perspective)
1855
Watercolour, ink, and graphite on paper
25 5/16 x 30in. (64.3 x 76.2cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1924
Public domain

 

Davis’ most successful castellated villa was built for dry-goods merchant John J. Herrick. The design was dominated by an enormous three-story circular tower facing west over the Hudson River. The tower housed an extraordinary circular parlor that had an intricately vaulted ceiling springing from a massive central cluster of delicate Gothic columns. Ericstan was demolished in 1944.

 

After Alexander Jackson Davis (American, 1803-1892) Friend & Aub (Publisher Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 'Map of Llewellyn Park and Villa Sites, on Eagle Ridge in Orange & West Bloomfield' 1857

 

After Alexander Jackson Davis (American, 1803-1892)
Friend & Aub (Publisher Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Map of Llewellyn Park and Villa Sites, on Eagle Ridge in Orange & West Bloomfield
1857
Lithograph
14 7/16 x 23 7/16 in. (36.7 x 59.6cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1924
Public domain

 

Morse & Fronti (Charles W. Morse and J. Fronti) 'Residence of Mr. E. Hooker, Fremont Ave., Orange, N.J.' 1860

 

Morse & Fronti (Charles W. Morse and J. Fronti)
Residence of Mr. E. Hooker, Fremont Ave., Orange, N.J.
1860
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection
The New York Public Library
Public domain

 

Currier & Ives (Publisher, New York active between 1856-1907) 'Sunnyside on the Hudson' 1856-1871

 

Currier & Ives (Publisher, New York active between 1856-1907)
Sunnyside on the Hudson
1856-1871
Hand coloured lithograph
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Public domain

 

Currier & Ives (Publisher, New York active between 1856-1907) 'Sunnyside on the Hudson' 1856-1871 (detail)

 

Currier & Ives (Publisher, New York active between 1856-1907)
Sunnyside on the Hudson (detail)
1856-1871
Hand coloured lithograph
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Public domain

 

Currier & Ives (Publisher, New York active between 1856-1907) 'American railroad scene: lightning express trains leaving the junction' 1874

 

Currier & Ives (Publisher, New York active between 1856-1907)
American railroad scene: lightning express trains leaving the junction
1874
Hand coloured lithograph
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Public domain

 

Advertising by Samuel. E. Gross 'August Gast & Co. New York' c. 1900

 

Advertising by Samuel. E. Gross.
August Gast & Co. New York
c. 1900
Lithography
Library of Congress

 

Advertising by Samuel. E. Gross 'August Gast & Co. New York' c. 1900 (detail)

 

Advertising by Samuel. E. Gross.
August Gast & Co. New York (detail)
c. 1900
Lithography
Library of Congress

 

Anonymous photographer / Bain News Service (publisher) 'Skaters on the lake at Tuxedo Park' 1910

 

Anonymous photographer
Bain News Service (publisher)
Skaters on the lake at Tuxedo Park
1910
Glass negative
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Public domain

 

Anonymous photographer. 'Thomas Edison in the garden of his residence in Glenmont' 1917

 

Anonymous photographer
Thomas Edison in the garden of his residence in Glenmont
1917
Thomas Edison National Historical Park, West Orange, New Jersey

 

Anonymous photographer. 'General Motors Pavilion: Futurama, Norman Bel Geddes. New York World's Fair. General Motors – Crowds leading into Futurama' 1939

 

Anonymous photographer
General Motors Pavilion: Futurama, Norman Bel Geddes. New York World’s Fair. General Motors – Crowds leading into Futurama
1939
New York World’s Fair 1939-1940 records
Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
Public domain

 

'Catalog of the Aladdin company selling houses by mail' 1950

 

Catalog of the Aladdin company selling houses by mail
1950
Courtesy Historic New England

 

'Federal Housing Administration, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota' c. 1950

 

Federal Housing Administration, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
c. 1950
Courtesy Minnesota Streetcar Museum, Minneapolis

 

The advertisement reads, “With a small down payment your rent money will buy a home. Consult your architect, builder, material dealer or any participating financial institution. Federal Housing Administration.”

 

The Suburban Room

The suburban explosion was first and foremost demographic, occurring as World War II soldiers returned, eager to set up home. There was no room for them in the crowded cities. With the support of the state, which offered generous loans, suburbs were built using the Fordist assembly-line production logic. It was the “American way of life”, the start of a collective dream that fascinated the whole world.

And so the baby boom took place in 11 million single-family homes fitted with all kinds of electrical domestic appliances, presided over by a brand new television set on which the new suburbanites watched idealised versions of themselves with identical skin colour and the same war experiences, age, mortgage and feeling of uprootedness. The media echoed this phenomenon, and cinema and literature reflected this standardised landscape in which a wife waited at home for her husband with a drink for him in her hand, children went everywhere by bicycle, and everyone had barbecues on Sundays.

Sponsored by the state, Suburbia became a paradise that excluded racial minorities. But little by little, by the sixties, the gates of paradise were opened to African Americans and other minorities, giving rise to a white exodus, the white flight.

As well as a variety of historical material, this section reviews sitcoms portraying the suburbs, from the 1940s to the present day. It also includes the famous illustration New Kids in the Neighborhood by Norman Rockwell and a broad selection of the photographs that make up Bill Owens’ Suburbia (1972), the first book of photographs about this American urban planning model.

 

Arthur S. Siegel (American, 1913-1978) 'Detroit, Michigan. Riot at the Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.S. federal housing project, caused by white neighbours' attempt to prevent Negro tenants from moving in. Mounted police and whites' Detroit 1942

 

Arthur S. Siegel (American, 1913-1978)

Detroit, Michigan. Riot at the Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.S. federal housing project, caused by white neighbours’ attempt to prevent Negro tenants from moving in. Mounted police and whites
Detroit 1942
Library of Congress
Public domain

 

General Electric advertisement 'It's a promise' 1945

 

General Electric advertisement
It’s a promise
1945
Private collection, Barcelona

 

Anonymous photographer. 'Aerial view of Levittown' 1949

 

Anonymous photographer
Aerial view of Levittown
1949
Courtesy Levittown Public Library

 

'Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines' 1947-1962

 

Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines
1947-1962

 

'Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines' 1947-1962 (detail)

'Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines' 1947-1962 (detail)

'Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines' 1947-1962 (detail)

'Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines' 1947-1962 (detail)

 

Mural of household appliance advertisements published in different American magazines (details)
1947-1962

 

Getting to Work. The Trials to U.S. commuters 'Time', January 18, 1960

 

Getting to Work. The Trials to U.S. commuters
Time, January 18, 1960
Library of Catalonia, Barcelona

 

John Cheever 'Time', March 27, 1964

 

John Cheever
Time, March 27, 1964
Library of Catalonia, Barcelona

 

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978) 'New Kids in the Neighbourhood' 1967

 

Norman Rockwell (American, 1894-1978)
New Kids in the Neighbourhood
1967
Lithograph
Norman Rockwell Museum Collection

 

Bill Owens (American, b. 1938) 'Suburbia, Cul de sac, Pleseanton, California' 1972

 

Bill Owens (American, b. 1938)
Suburbia, Cul de sac, Pleseanton, California
1972
Gelatin silver
Bill Owens Archive, Milan

 

Bill Owens (American, b. 1938) 'I don't feel that Richie playing with guns will have a negative effect on his personality. (He already wants to be a policeman.)' 1972

 

Bill Owens (American, b. 1938)
I don’t feel that Richie playing with guns will have a negative effect on his personality. (He already wants to be a policeman.)
1972
Gelatin silver
Bill Owens Archive, Milan

 

The Residential Nightmare

And night fell on Suburbia. What had been a dream became a nightmare. The idea of a safe, healthy, happy place was gradually contaminated with fears, terrors and paranoias. Doors were bolted and alarms installed. After all, in the American Gothic tradition, the house, often haunted, had always been a source of horror – evil lurked there. With the appearance of mass-produced housing, a new sub genre called Suburban Gothic was consolidated, and began to manifest itself both in literature and in cinema. Unlike the traditional Gothic, in this new landscape the family residence was no longer tied to a specific territory, as it had been in New England; now, with its white picket fence and green lawn, it could be anywhere in the country. And evil came from outside, it threatened to invade the home and even undermine it. Under the guise of shiny normality, American suburbs always conceal cracks through which terror creeps.

To illustrate this residential nightmare, we take in historical materials of the atomic age, photographs of the dark side of suburbia by Amy Stein, Todd Hido, Gregory Crewdson, Angela Strassheim and Gabriele Galimberti, and Kate Wagner’s installation, McMansionHell. Alberto Ortega, an artist from Seville resident in the US who has devoted himself to painting the suburbs at night, presents two works for the first time at the CCCB.

 

Todd Hido (American, b. 1968) 'Untitled #2214' 1998

 

Todd Hido (American, b. 1968)
Untitled #2214
1998
From the series House Hunting

 

Angela Strassheim (American, b. 1969) 'Untitled (Elsa)' 2005

 

Angela Strassheim (American, b. 1969)
Untitled (Elsa)
2005
Left Behind series
Courtesy of the artist

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Suburbia. Building the American Dream' at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing the work of Gabriele Galimberti from the series 'The Ameriguns' with at top right, 'Joel, Lynne, Paige and Joshua (44, 43, 5 and 11 years old) – central Texas' 2021; and at bottom right, 'Eric Arnsberger (30) and Morgan Gagnier (22) – Lake Forest, California' 2021

 

Installation view of the exhibition Suburbia. Building the American Dream at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB showing the work of Gabriele Galimberti from the series The Ameriguns with at top right, Joel, Lynne, Paige and Joshua (44, 43, 5 and 11 years old) – central Texas 2021; and at bottom right, Eric Arnsberger (30) and Morgan Gagnier (22) – Lake Forest, California 2021

© Alice Brazzit, CCCB, 2024

 

Gabriele Galimberti (Italian, b. 1977) 'Joel, Lynne, Paige and Joshua (44, 43, 5 and 11 years old) – central Texas' 2021

 

Gabriele Galimberti (Italian, b. 1977)
Joel, Lynne, Paige and Joshua (44, 43, 5 and 11 years old) – central Texas
2021
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist

 

Gabriele Galimberti (Italian, b. 1977) 'Avery Skipalis (33) – Tampa, Florida' 2021

 

Gabriele Galimberti (Italian, b. 1977)
Avery Skipalis (33) – Tampa, Florida
2021
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist

 

Avery Skipalis (33) stands with her firearms in front of her house in Tampa, Florida, USA. Her son looks on from a window. Avery joined the US Air Force when she was 17, and after serving in the UAE, Japan and Germany, left to start a company that offers firearms safety classes to adults and children.

 

Alberto Ortega (American born Spain, b. 1976) 'Annunciation' 2023

 

Alberto Ortega (American born Spain, b. 1976)
Annunciation
2023
Oil on aluminium panel
Courtesy of the artist

 

Alberto Ortega (Sevilla, Spain 1976) creates oil paintings made after miniature sets that he builds as references. The small-scale sets enable him to recreate suburban scenes using details that recall the 1950s. Since he’s able to control the angle and point of view, the lighting, the location of every element, much like a film director would do, his works have a strong cinematic feel.

As an immigrant to the United States, Alberto is intrigued by American suburban life as depicted in film, literature, and visual art. Through these images of American homes, buildings, and neighbourhoods, he portrays society and some of its contradictions. These scenes represent hopes and dreams, the threat of their failure, and alienation.

Text from the Alberto Ortega website

 

Kate Wagner (American, b. 1993) 'Observations from McMansion Hell' 2023

 

Kate Wagner (American, b. 1993)
Observations from McMansion Hell
2023
Digital print on palboard
Courtesy of the artist

 

McMansion Hell is a blog that humorously critiques McMansions, large suburban homes typically built from the 1980s to 2008 and known for their stylistic attempt to create the appearance of affluence using mass-produced architecture. The website is run by Kate Wagner, an architectural writer. …

The blog uses Wagner’s commentary atop images of the interiors and exteriors of McMansions, using arrows to note features she finds questionable or in poor taste. Besides critiquing the homes themselves, the website also criticises the perceived material culture of wastefulness McMansions can represent, gives anecdotes of situations when McMansions have been a poor financial investment, and provides other essays on urban planning and architectural history. The blog offers subscriptions with bonus content, generating sufficient funding for Wagner to work on the blog full-time.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

Post-Suburbia?

The appearance of New Urbanism in the 1990s began to herald the inevitable death of Suburbia due to the announced depletion of oil that has not yet occurred. Meanwhile, Suburbia continues to spread, transform and diversify. Today, 8 out of 10 Americans live in sprawl and single-family homes, representing 75% of the residential areas where new generations continue to dream of living. This is a new suburbia that is more open but also more unequal.

This suburb is made up of very diverse communities, as captured by the cameras of the photographers Sheila Pree Bright (who portrays African American life around Atlanta) and Jessica Chou (who immortalises the Asian community in Monterrey Park, California). New lifestyles also proliferate there, like at Huntington Beach, a “contemporary suburb” and surfing capital featured in the works of artist and skateboarder Ed Templeton.

This section also focuses on the environmental impact of this highly polluting city model, through the apocalyptic bonsai of artist Thomas Doyle and the satellite photographs of Benjamin Grant, a lethal panorama of the effects of the sprawling city.

 

Thomas Doyle (American, b. 1976) 'Proxy (Haven Ln.)' 2012

 

Thomas Doyle (American, b. 1976)
Proxy (Haven Ln.)
2012
Mixed media
Courtesy of the artist

 

Thomas Doyle work mines the debris of memory through the creation of intricate worlds sculpted in 1:43 scale and smaller. Often sealed under glass, the works depict the remnants of things past – whether major, transformational experiences, or the quieter moments that resonate loudly throughout a life. In much the way the mind recalls events through the fog of time, the works distort reality through a warped and dreamlike lens.

Text from the Ronchini Gallery website

 

Weronika Gęsicka (Polish, b. 1984) 'Untitled #16' 2015-2017 From the series 'Traces'

 

Weronika Gęsicka (Polish, b. 1984)
Untitled #16
2015-2017
From the series Traces
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist and Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw

 

For her series “Traces”, Polish artist Weronika Gęsicka searched through various online image databases for photographs from the 1940s to the 1960s that in her eyes reflect the American way of life at that time. Many of these scenes are full of clichés, showing happy-looking people in an apparently perfect world. The exact origin of the pictures is not verifiable. As a result, they are a mixture of advertisements and private photos. Gęsicka manipulates the idyllic scenes in a playful way by digitally distorting the images. In doing so, she does not follow a strict pattern, but instead decides intuitively what detail she finds fascinating and will edit. In this way, the rather stereotypical scenes of suburban American life are transformed into a humorous, but also uncomfortable reality. Covered faces, deformed bodies and peculiar superimpositions create a distorted version of the American dream. Gęsicka’s photos are characterised by a discomforting, almost oppressive mood that sometimes only reveals itself at second glance: young men at a tea dance, whose heads are submerged in the cleavages of their oversized female partners, family members hidden behind a curtain at the dinner table, or a father coming home from work, separated by a trench from his children, who are running towards him.

In “Traces”, Weronika Gęsicka questions how we perceive images. In doing so, she makes us aware that even the medium of photography, which allegedly reflects reality, is not objective. Each photograph merely satisfies a perception of what is happening and, in the photographer’s eye, remains a subjective likeness. By modifying the images, she is playing with the observer, who is initially confident that he can quickly classify and identify the scene – until he notices that nothing in these pictures is as it seems at first glance.

Anonymous. “Weronika Gęsicka: A Disconcerting Idyll,” on the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation website Nd [Online] Cited 13/08/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Weronika Gęsicka (Polish, b. 1984) 'Untitled #52' 2015-2017 From the series 'Traces'

 

Weronika Gęsicka (Polish, b. 1984)
Untitled #52
2015-2017
From the series Traces
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist and Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw

 

Ed Templeton (American, b. 1972) 'Contemporary Suburbium' 2017

 

Ed Templeton (American, b. 1972)
Contemporary Suburbium
2017
Digital printing on baryta paper
Courtesy of Roberts Projects, Los Angeles

 

Jessica Chou (American born Taiwan, b. 1985) 'The Mark Keppel High School Dance Team at the 2019 Miss Dance Drill Team USA National Dance Competition' 2019

 

Jessica Chou (American born Taiwan, b. 1985)
The Mark Keppel High School Dance Team at the 2019 Miss Dance Drill Team USA National Dance Competition
2019
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist

 

Benjamin Grant (American, b. 1984) 'Berwyn, Illinois' 2023

 

Benjamin Grant (American, b. 1984)
Berwyn, Illinois
2023
Digital printing
Images created by Overview, source images
© Nearmap

 

Overview takes its inspiration from Daily Overview – an Instagram account established by author Benjamin Grant. Since he began the project in December 2013, his daily posts have both delighted and challenged his audience from all corners of the globe. For Overview, Grant has curated and created more than 200 original images by stitching together numerous high-resolution satellite photographs. With each Overview, Grant aims to not only inspire a fresh perspective of our planet but also encourage a new understanding of what human impact looks like. He lives and rides his bike in New York City.

Text from the Penguin Books website

 

Benjamin Grant (American, b. 1984) 'Berwyn, Illinois' 2023 (detail)

 

Benjamin Grant (American, b. 1984)
Berwyn, Illinois (detail)
2023
Digital printing
Images created by Overview, source images
© Nearmap

 

Sprawl Reaches Our Shores

The formation of Suburbia as a cultural phenomenon in Catalonia is a reality historically ignored by narratives about the Catalan process of urbanisation, too focused on city growth and the ideological differentiation between an urban, Barcelona-based Catalonia and an “inner” Catalonia, the birthplace of what still today we call the “countryside”.

Suburban Catalonia shows how, in many territories, urban growth no longer corresponds to the well-known metaphor of city growth as an “oil stain”. In fact, an endless mass of oil stains has spread across the territory, giving rise to the same cloned reality everywhere: regional urban sprawl. The sprawl that is so commonplace today developed with the motorisation of society starting in the latter half of the 20th century as part and parcel of a very heterogeneous cultural discourse: the ideological propaganda of the American way of life mixed with local traditions derived from criticism of the built-up, crowded industrial city popularly disseminated in expressions such as “la caseta i l’hortet” (a little house and a garden) that idealised rural life. The path leading from those initial suburban choices to today’s regional urban sprawl is not a straight one, making the Catalan suburb a world yet to be discovered.

Christopher Willan has made a photographic reportage about the Catalan suburban world specially for the exhibition, which also includes Blanca Munt’s installation Mira-Sol Alert about the neighbourhood’s paranoid state of alert and an audiovisual piece by filmmaker León Siminiani that closes the exhibition.

 

Pere Torné Esquius (Spanish, 1879-1936) 'The rocking chair' 1913

 

Pere Torné Esquius (Spanish, 1879-1936)
The rocking chair (El balancí)
1913
Oil on canvas
National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona

 

For different reasons, the singular work of the painter, illustrator and cartoonist Pere Torné Esquius (Barcelona 1879 – Flavancourt, France, 1936) doesn’t fit in with either the modernist proposals or the noucentista style (turn of the century), even though the latter considered him to be one of theirs.

Settled in Paris from 1905 onwards, although he would often return to Barcelona to regularly exhibit there, his work, of apparent simplicity, responded to a certain primitivism which was somewhat naive and with a strong French influence. His painting, highly singular, maintained pictorial and atmospheric values which provided the whole production with a sense of unity.

The favourite topics of Torné Esquius were interior or secluded spaces, such as gardens or living rooms, humble or of artisan extraction. It is worth highlighting, very often, the absence of the human figure and the main presence of inanimate elements that on occasions would cause a disturbing or even alarming effect. He also produced other genres such as landscapes or portraits.

Despite the fact that he was a painter, his professional work was based on illustration, focused on three main lines: children’s literature, the illustration of literary texts and the collaboration in magazines and periodical publications, often satirical, such as Papitu, Picarol or Le Rire, amongst others.

Anonymous. “Torné Esquius. Poetics of the Everyday,” on the Museu Nacional D’Art De Catalunya website 2017 [Online] Cited 13/08/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

'XXIII Barcelona International Exhibition Fair, 1955. USA Pavilion. OITF: Office of International Trade Fair. Single-family house model: "house beautiful prefabricated"' 1955

 

XXIII Barcelona International Exhibition Fair, 1955. USA Pavilion. OITF: Office of International Trade Fair. Single-family house model: “house beautiful prefabricated”
1955
Historical Archive of the College of Architects of Catalonia

 

Barcelona Metropolitan Area. 'Orthophoto. Dispersed urbanisation in the municipality of Corbera de Llobregat' 2015

 

Barcelona Metropolitan Area
Orthophoto. Dispersed urbanisation in the municipality of Corbera de Llobregat
2015

 

Blanca Munt (Spanish, b. 1997) 'Mira-sol alert' 2023

 

Blanca Munt (Spanish, b. 1997)
Mira-sol alert
2023
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist

 

In 2019, photographer Blanca Munt engaged in a neighbourhood chat group created to surveil her own neighbourhood and alert to any potential home burglaries or other suspicious activity. What is initially presented as an effective tool for the neighbours soon becomes a source of speculation, suspicion and paranoia. The seemingly quiet community life in a neighbourhood of well-lit streets and conventional homes founders due to the actual burglaries, but also due to the disintegration of the idea of community when personal security is at stake: mistrust, typically based on suspicious appearance or behaviour, now extends to any neighbours who fail to rigorously conform to the group’s purpose.

With a clean and sober design reminiscent of a real estate or security company brochure, the dispassionate pictures portrayed in Mira-sol Alert intertwine with the mental images stemming from an inflamed rhetoric, which gradually take shape as we learn the self-interested views of the different actors in this landscape – neighbours, suspects, police officers, local authorities – and which appeal strongly to our fears and contradictions. In her own words, Blanca Munt calls for a “reflection on the tension between the privilege of living in a peaceful place and the constant sense of lurking threat encouraged by our current culture of fear.”

Text from the Dalpine website

 

Christopher Willan (British lives Spain) 'Sant Quirze del Vallès' 2023

 

Christopher Willan (British lives Spain)
Sant Quirze del Vallès
2023
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist

 

Christopher Willan (British lives Spain) 'Els Trullols Park-1' 2023

 

Christopher Willan (British lives Spain)
Els Trullols Park-1
2023
Digital printing
Courtesy of the artist

 

The Curators

Philipp Engel: Graduate in Modern Literature from the University of Toulouse, with a thesis on Bret Easton Ellis. After ten years in the music sales and distribution business, he started to work as a cultural journalist, specializing in cinema and literature. He is currently a contributor to various periodicals, such as Cultura(s), El Mundo, Cinemanía, Sofilm and Coolt.

Francesc Muñoz: Lecturer in Urban Geography, director of the Observatory of Urban Planning at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and professor at the Università IUAV di Venezia. He has received prizes such as the Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis Attending to Human Values in Engineering (UPC, 2004) and the Bonaplata Award for the exhibition The Light Factory, about the power station in Sant Adrià de Besòs (2014). He has curated shows such as the commemorative exhibition of 30 years of democratic town councils, Local, Local! The City to Come (CCCB, 2010), and the exhibition Architectures on the Waterfront (Fundació Mies van der Rohe, 2019), and was a member of the Cerdà Year Advisory Board (2010).

Press release from the CCCB

 

 

Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB
Montalegre, 5 – 08001 Barcelona
Phone: (+34) 933 064 100

Opening hours:
From Tuesday to Sunday and bank holidays 11.00 – 20.00
Closed Monday

Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona | CCCB website

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Exhibition: ‘Gregory Crewdson. Retrospective’ at the Albertina Museum, Vienna

Exhibition dates: 29th May – 8th September 2024

Curators: Walter Moser and Astrid Mahler

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Early Work' 1986-1988 from the exhibition 'Gregory Crewdson. Retrospective' at the Albertina Museum, Vienna, May - Sept 2024

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Early Work, 1986-1988
Digital pigment print
39 x 58cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

 

I have so many exhibitions to post within the next few weeks that you get two postings this weekend and next weekend!

It’s always a pleasure to see the work of Gregory Crewdson – stylish, stylised, hyperreal, dead pan, cinematic, panoramic large-scale transcendent photographs.

For an analysis of Crewdson’s work please see my text Downfall of a dream: (n)framing the enigma in Gregory Crewdson’s Beneath the Roses (2012)

Dr Marcus Bunyan


Many thankx to the Albertina Museum for allowing me to publish the photographs for the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

 

Gregory Crewdson. Retrospective

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) is one of the world’s most renowned photographers. Since the mid-1980s, Crewdson has been using the backdrop of small American towns and film sets to create, like a director, technically brilliant and colourfully seductive photographs that focus on human isolation and the abysses of society. The enigmatic scenes self-reflexively raise questions about the boundary between fact and fiction but can also be related to socio-political developments.

Watch this emotional video of the artist in the middle of his exhibition at the Albertina Museum.

 

 

Gregory Crewdson. Retrospektive | Mit Kurator Walter Moser

Curator Walter Moser on Cregory Grewdson’s unique work

 

 

Gregory Crewdson | Mit Co-Kuratorin Astrid Mahler

“Gregory Crewdson’s latest series is set in the fictional small town of ‘Eveningside’. It is the last part of a trilogy in which Crewdson addresses the socio-political conditions of his country and the failure of the American Dream,” says co-curator Astrid Mahler about the last part of our major retrospective of the world-famous photographer Gregory Crewdson.

 

 

What I am interested in is that moment of transcendence, where one is transported into another place, into a perfect, still world.


Gregory Crewdson

 

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) is one of the world’s most renowned photographers. Since the mid-1980s, Crewdson has been using the backdrop of small American towns and film sets to create, like a director, technically brilliant and colourfully seductive photographs that focus on human isolation and the abysses of society. The enigmatic scenes self-reflexively raise questions about the boundary between fact and fiction but can also be related to socio-political developments.

The retrospective at the Albertina comprises a total of nine groups of works, created over the last three and a half decades and conceived serially. Starting with his Early Work (1986-1988), the exhibition includes Crewdson’s best-known series such as Twilight (1998-2002), which depicts scenes shaped by cinematic language, with people being confronted by unexplainable phenomena in their everyday lives. The impressive, mysterious large-scale scenes from the Beneath the Roses series (2003‒2008) deal with people’s isolation and alienation from their environment. The most recently completed group of works Eveningside (2021-2022) portrays an unheroic image of a fictional small town of the same name in atmospheric black and white. Following Cathedral of the Pines (2013-2014) and An Eclipse of Moths (2018-2019), Eveningside represents the final part of a trilogy through which the artist examines the social decline of society far removed from the American dream.

Crewdson’s large-scale pictures are preceded by months of planning; they are created with the participation of hundreds of people from casting, wardrobe and art departments, plus technical specialists. Production photographs taken in parallel illustrate the highly elaborate process of design, culminating in an extensive post-production process in which the final photographs are assembled from multiple shots.

As a generous gesture, the exhibition is accompanied by a significant donation to the Albertina’s photo collection. This extensive assimilation of works strengthens the focus of the collection on contemporary photography.

Text from the Albertina Museum website

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Natural Wonder' 1991-1997 from the exhibition 'Gregory Crewdson. Retrospective' at the Albertina Museum, Vienna, May - Sept 2024

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Natural Wonder, 1991-1997
Digital pigment print
30 x 39 7/8 in.
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Hover' 1996-1997 from the exhibition 'Gregory Crewdson. Retrospective' at the Albertina Museum, Vienna, May - Sept 2024

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Hover, 1996-1997
Digital pigment print
51 x 61cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Twilight' 1998-2002

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Twilight, 1998-2002
Digital pigment print
122 x 152cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Twilight' 1998-2002

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Twilight, 1998-2002
Digital pigment print
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)'Untitled' From the series 'Beneath the Roses' 2003-2008

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Beneath the Roses, 2003-2008
Digital pigment print
144 x 223cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Beneath the Roses' 2003-2008

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Beneath the Roses, 2003-2008
Digital pigment print
144 x 123cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Beneath the Roses' 2003-2008

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Beneath the Roses, 2003-2008
Digital pigment print
144 x 123cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Beneath the Roses' 2003-2008

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Beneath the Roses, 2003-2008
Digital pigment print
144 x 223cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

 

Exhibition Texts

Early Work, 1986-1988

Early Work was created as Crewdson’s final project at Yale University’s School of Art. Among other places, Gregory Crewdson photographed the series in the US state of Massachusetts, mostly in the small town of Lee, which is very close to the family’s summer home. Due to his personal connection to this region, the artist still realises almost all of his photographic projects in the Massachusetts area. In the photographs, Crewdson arranged the town’s residents in the context of their domestic settings. Using relatively modest technical devices at the time, he transformed the real places into mysterious, uncanny scenes with the help of artificial lighting. Introverted protagonists rendered in tightly cropped views present typically American suburbs as places of human isolation and oppression. David Lynch’s surreal masterpiece Blue Velvet, in which the main character encounters human abysses behind the idyllic façade of a small town, served as a major model. The film, which came out in 1986, turned out to be stylistic inspiration for Crewdson and also became an important source of reference for his subsequent series. Crewdson also dealt with more documentary positions, such as those of Stephen Shore and William Eggleston. On their journeys across the United States, they enhanced everyday motifs with symbolic meaning through close-up views and vibrant colours. Especially Eggleston employed these means to allude to disconcerting aspects in society.

Natural Wonder, 1991-1997

Inspired by the dioramas in natural history museums, for Natural Wonder Gregory Crewdson built three-dimensional models in his studio, which he then photographed. The pictures show enigmatic rituals and cruel incidents happening in nature, which take place against the backdrop of the suburbs without people realising. For example, birds sit around a mysterious circle of eggs, or nature takes possession of a decaying animal carcass. As a metaphor for suppressed anxieties and traumas, the depicted landscape functions as a mirror of the unconscious and the human psyche. In Crewdson’s series, autobiographic elements – his father was a psychoanalyst – and overriding social themes characteristically coincide. The symbolism of Natural Wonder has essentially been inspired by cinematography: in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds (1963), the eponymous animals, suddenly infesting an idyllic world, symbolise dysfunctional relationships and human fears. In Blue Velvet (1986), David Lynch eliminates the line between reality and illusion, between the familiar and the eerie, between idyll and violence through the motif of a prepared robin or of a severed human ear covered with ants, which is found in a meadow.

Hover, 1996/1997

In Hover, his third series, Gregory Crewdson abandons the aesthetic achievements of earlier works: he takes pictures in black and white from a bird’s-eye view with the help of a crane. The strategy characteristic of Crewdson’s work to merely adumbrate a narrative while abstaining from resolving it and keeping it in mysterious suspense reaches an early climax in Hover. With a distanced, objectifying gaze he shows familiar occurrences in a small town as they tip over into the unusual. The recurring motif of the circle refers not only to popular science fiction movies and works of land art, but also quotes Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo (1958), in which the circle is considered a metaphor for romantic obsession.

Gregory Crewdson now began to plan his sessions in advance and in great detail. As were other series, Hover was shot in the real place of Lee with the aid of residents performing as protagonists. Occasionally, Crewdson still resorted to improvisation; for example, he called the police for the purpose of integrating the police car into the photograph.

Twilight, 1998-2002

Twilight is one of Gregory Crewdson’s most well-known works. It is informed by cinema even more than earlier series. In its scenes, which are mostly set at dusk, Crewdson resorts to the fantastic as the principal theme. Inexplicable phenomena intrude into everyday life. Familiar objects are repurposed, and people give the impression of being exposed and unprotected because of their nudity.

Similar to a film production, a crew of about sixty took part in Twilight. In this series, Crewdson arrived at his characteristic repertoire of motifs, such as open cars, windows, and mirrors, which he varied and put together like vocabulary and would also use for subsequent works. Crewdson began to fully concentrate on the mise-en-scène, leaving the technical implementation of the shots to Richard Sands for the first time – a practice continued to this day. This high-profile director of photography from the world of cinema has worked with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, among others.

The photographs, which Crewdson refers to as “single-frame movies,” contain multiple references to classical painting and popular culture, a telling example of the latter being Steven Spielberg’s science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Gregory Crewdson’s postmodern approach becomes manifest in these images: starting out from the idea that reality is no longer “authentic” but merely experienced through the media, the recognisable references reveal the staging they are based on.

Beneath the Roses, 2003-2008

In Beneath the Roses, the surreal, uncanny atmosphere of earlier series gives way to an essentially melancholic and psychologising key tone. The protagonists, captured in desolate surroundings, are shown frozen and motionless. Lonely, isolated, and without interacting, they appear totally alienated. Especially for his interior shots, Gregory Crewdson borrows from Edward Hopper’s painting. Situations of human introspection in anonymous, everyday architectural settings that both suggest intimacy and accommodate a voyeuristic gaze are unmistakable parallels.

Beneath the Roses is the most elaborate series in Gregory Crewdson’s oeuvre, which he originally developed as an idea for a film and to which more than one hundred specialists from casting, costume design, technical, and art departments contributed over the extensive period during which the series was realised. As in Twilight, he staged the interior shots in studios, whereas outdoor shots were taken in real places he had profoundly transformed according to his ideas. The artist meticulously prepared the shoot with architectural models, storyboards, scene scripts, and location shots. The focus was particularly on the choice of props, which appear both quintessentially American and timeless. Using different aperture settings, Crewdson took multiple photographs of each scene. In postproduction, which lasted over several months, he combined forty to fifty negatives, so that the constant depth of field in the final picture gives a hyperrealist impression.

Sanctuary, 2009

Sanctuary was created after the monumental large-scale project Beneath the Roses (2003-2008). The series marks a period of transition during which Gregory Crewdson put new artistic approaches to the test. When staying in Rome in 2009, he visited the Italian city of cinematography Cinecittà, where, in its film sets, his first group of works was realised outside the United States. He completed the project within two months with a small team and little technical and financial input. In Sanctuary, Crewdson heightened the tension between reality and fiction known from earlier series by making the sets as such the actual subject. The black-and-white photography accentuates the morbid appeal of the sets as ruins. In contrast to Crewdson’s usual practice of conveying loneliness and isolation with the aid of performers, in Sanctuary he creates an essentially melancholic atmosphere through the complete absence of people. In particular, the artist makes palpable the discrepancy between the hustle and bustle of past film shoots and the now ghostly desolation.

Cathedral of the Pines, 2013/2014

Cathedral of the Pines was created after a period of personal and artistic crisis. In the midst of the mighty pine forests near the city of Becket in Massachusetts, where Gregory Crewdson has lived since 2010, he discovered the eponymous path that became the starting point for this series. Cathedral of the Pines is one of the artist’s most personal groups of work. For the first time, he engaged persons from his family and circle of friends as performers. Moreover, he staged his interiors in real houses, working with a comparatively small team and a minimum of artificial light.

Cathedral of the Pines examines the subject of the human condition through the relationship between human beings and landscape. The nocturnal atmosphere of earlier series gives way to cool daylight and cold colours: completely in the nude or only partially covered and staring absent-mindedly, his performers seem frozen and withdrawn into their own emotional worlds. By placing windows prominently, Crewdson contrasts the relationship between interior and exterior space, as well as interior and exterior light. With its references to the Romanticism of the early nineteenth century – such as compositions by Caspar David Friedrich – or seventeenth-century Dutch painting – such as the art of Jan Vermeer – the motif of the window is also in the tradition of a symbol of contemplation and unfulfilled yearning.

An Eclipse of Moths, 2018/2019

Gregory Crewdson photographed An Eclipse of Moths during Donald Trump’s presidency, thus formulating his analysis of society as sociopolitical criticism. In the city where the series was shot, Pittsfield in Massachusetts, the majority of the population had worked for the local General Electric plant and many lost their jobs after the firm had closed down. In addition to high unemployment, the company left behind a devastated environment. Crewdson describes the situation of neglected postindustrial places through the contrast between light atmospheres rendered in vibrant colours and desolate motifs of everyday life. Potholed streets or dilapidated houses symbolise the fragility and frailty of a society that has lost its footing.

Different from Cathedral of the Pines (2013/2014), his previous series, in An Eclipse of Moths Crewdson returned to the cinematographic widescreen format. The artist depicted his protagonists as small figures in proportion to their surroundings and at a distance from one another. He frequently arranged his seemingly disoriented protagonists around street lamps, comparable to the eponymous moths circling around the light in the darkness. Apart from a multitude of props, he also used smoke and artificially sprinkled streets for this series so as to masterfully stage his light effects.

Eveningside, 2021/2022

Gregory Crewdson’s most recent series is set in a fictitious small town called Eveningside. Its imaginary geography is made up of various places in western Massachusetts the artist had used as scenes for earlier works. After Cathedral of the Pines (2013/2014) and An Eclipse of Moths (2018/2019), this atmospheric work in black and white constitutes the final part of Crewdson’s trilogy, which deals with the sociopolitical dark sides of a society removed from the American dream. In Eveningside, the artist often depicts people going about their work. Frozen in absolute standstill, they seem caught in their respective social contexts.

Crewdson’s arrangements ingeniously position the protagonists in space through lighting influenced by film noir and motifs like shopwindow and mirror. The artist shows their faces in reflections from irritating and slightly shifted perspectives with the aid of montage. Windows frame the protagonists as pictures within the picture und underscore the act of image-making as a self-reflexive practice.

Text from The Albertina Museum press release

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Untitled' From the series 'Sanctuary' 2009

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Untitled
From the series Sanctuary, 2009
Digital pigment print
72 x 90cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'The Mattress' From the series 'Cathedral of the Pines' 2013-2014

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
The Mattress
From the series Cathedral of the Pines, 2013-2014
Digital pigment print
94 x 127cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'The Basement' From the series 'Cathedral of the Pines' 2013-2014

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
The Basement
From the series Cathedral of the Pines, 2013-2014
Digital pigment print
94 x 127cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Redemption Center' From the series 'An Eclipse of Moths' 2018-2019

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Redemption Center
From the series An Eclipse of Moths, 2018-2019
Digital pigment print
127 x 225cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Starkfield Lane' From the series 'An Eclipse of Moths' 2018-2019

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Starkfield Lane
From the series An Eclipse of Moths, 2018-2019
Digital pigment print
127 x 225cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962) 'Madeline's Beauty Salon' From the series 'Eveningside' 2021-2022

 

Gregory Crewdson (American, b. 1962)
Madeline’s Beauty Salon
From the series Eveningside, 2021-2022
Digital pigment print
88 x 117cm
The Albertina Museum, Vienna
Permanent loan, Private Collection
© Gregory Crewdson

 

 

The Albertina Museum
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Phone: +43 (0)1 534 83 0

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Exhibition: ‘David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive’ at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid

“I suggest that David Goldblatt was one such artist who was brought up to believe that he had an obligation to make a difference. And it was through the truth of his photographs that he made that difference.” Dr Marcus Bunyan

Exhibition dates: 30th May – 25th August, 2024

Curators: Judy Ditner, Leslie M. Wilson and Matthew S. Witkovsky

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Yaksha Modi, the daughter of Chagan Modi, in her father's shop before its destruction under the Group Areas Act, 17th Street, Fietas, Johannesburg' 1976 from the exhibition Exhibition: 'David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive' at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, May - August, 2024

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Yaksha Modi, the daughter of Chagan Modi, in her father’s shop before its destruction under the Group Areas Act, 17th Street, Fietas, Johannesburg
1976
From the series Fietas
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

 

David Goldblatt writing history

To keep this archive relevant I am constantly refreshing the postings to make sure all the links work, all the videos are still available, and all the bibliographic information about the photographers is up to date.

With the switch to the new template I am having to refresh every page that I have published since 2008 which is a mammoth task. Every time I search the Internet for an artist and their dates I say a little “thank you” when I find an artist is still living… for their creativity and energy is still present in the world. Unfortunately what I have found is that so many photographers have passed away since I started Art Blart in 2008, many within the last 8-10 years.

This is not surprising, people die! But we seem to be loosing that generation of photographers who were born in the 1920s-1940s who actually made a difference to the world and how we live in it. How they viewed the world in their own unique way and used photography to advocate for a fairer world free from war, discrimination and injustice. Photographs making a difference. As Lewis Hine observed, “Photography can light up darkness and expose ignorance.”

I find it very sad that every time a creative person dies you can no longer have a conservation with that person about their passion, their vision, their understanding of the world around them and how they photographed it. All we have left are their photographs, their lived consciousness if you like, as to what was important for them to photograph during their lifetime: family, friends, people, environment, spirit, protest, war, whatever … and what values they held fast to in order to picture the “improvised realities of everyday life.”

We are loosing a generation of photographers.

We are loosing a generation of photographers that captured an image of human existence as a reflection of reality, a truth lived in the world (rather than postmodern fragmentation, posthuman or AI).

At a time when the last fighter pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain in 1940 just turned 105 in July 2024 (Group Captain John Allman Hemingway, DFC, AE – one of the few that saved Britain), a large proportion of the artists listed below were born before or in the shadow of the cultural and ideological conflict that was the global conflagration of the Second World War. The grew up suffering the vicissitudes of war, bombing, death, rationing, deprivations, genocide and mass migration. They grew up knowing of the threat to their freedom and survival. They grew up with a heightened sense of the value of human life and the need to record that humanity. As my friend and photographer Joyce Evans (Australian, 1929-2019) eloquently said:

“We believed we had an obligation, neither social nor political, to make a difference. We were brought up as children to believe that we had an obligation to make that difference.

If we can find out what we are… that is the artist. This goes to the core element of your being, and the core element of your enquiry remains the same.

If the core part of your life is the search for the truth then that becomes a core part of your identity for the rest of your life. It becomes embedded in your soul.”1


I suggest that David Goldblatt was one such artist who was brought up to believe that he had an obligation to make a difference. And it was through the truth of his photographs that he made that difference.

Goldblatt was “the grandson of Lithuanian-Jewish migrants, who left Europe for South Africa in the 1890s to escape religious persecution. Goldblatt was born in the small gold-mining town of Randfontein in 1930 and later lived and worked in Johannesburg.”2

“In 1910 Chinese indentured labourers were repatriated and replaced by migrant black labour, many recruited from neighbouring territories. In 1921-1922 The Rand Rebellion/ Revolt saw white mine workers protest the industry’s attempt to replace semi-skilled white men with cheap black labour leaving about 200 people dead, more than 1,000 injured, 15,000 men out of work and a slump in gold production. The government came under pressure to protect skilled white workers in mining and three Acts were passed that gave employment opportunities to whites and introduced a plan for African segregation. In 1948 apartheid was legislated.”3

During the Second World War, “South Africa made significant contributions to the Allied war effort. Some 135,000 white South Africans fought in the East and North African and Italian campaigns, and 70,000 Blacks and Coloureds served as labourers and transport drivers… The war proved to be an economic stimulant for South Africa, although wartime inflation and lagging wages contributed to social protests and strikes after the end of the war. Driven by reduced imports, the manufacturing and service industries expanded rapidly, and the flow of Blacks to the towns became a flood. By the war’s end, more Blacks than whites lived in the towns. They set up vast squatter camps on the outskirts of the cities and improvised shelters from whatever materials they could find. They also began to flex their political muscles. Blacks boycotted a Witwatersrand bus company that tried to raise fares, they formed trade unions, and in 1946 more than 60,000 Black gold miners went on strike for higher wages and improved living conditions.”4

Goldblatt was a first generation migrant who grew up surrounded by the oppression of blacks in a small gold-mining town. He lived through the Second World War and as a human being and a Jew would know of the atrocities of the concentration camps. He started taking photographs when he was a teenager in the late 1940s after the war ended and just after the beginning of apartheid. All of these events – black oppression, Jewish genocide, and apartheid – would have affected his outlook on life and his values. He is quoted as saying, “Apartheid became very much the central area of my work, but my real preoccupation was with our values … how did we get to be the way we are?”5

How does any human being believe that their values are “right” and more valuable than those of another culture? that then leads them into conflict with other people who have different values? or to a belief that they are superior to another race? Such is the case with white supremacy and apartheid, a word used to describe a racist program of tightened segregation and discrimination.

Early in his career, to get subjects for his photographs, David Goldblatt posted “classified advertisements in local newspapers requesting sitters for his portraits. Goldblatt’s ads for his personal work often included a note of reassurance, one of which gave [this] exhibition its title: “I would like to photograph people in their homes in Johannesburg, Randburg and Sandton. There will be no charge and one free print will be supplied. Further copies at cost price. There is no catch and no ulterior motive.””6

The phrase “no ulterior motive” is part misnomer.

Leslie Wilson and Yechen Zhao have observed that while “Goldblatt’s use of “no ulterior motive” was supposed to allay concerns that he was trying to take advantage of his sitters,” Goldblatt was also fully aware of the use he wanted to put his photographs. “Even as he positioned himself as a photographer without an ulterior motive, Goldblatt certainly had an intention for the resulting photographs: to use them in service of understanding and representing South African social relations.”7

Goldblatt was fully aware, fully attentive and informed about the history his country – “the history of South Africa’s mining industry, white middle class, forced segregation of black and Asian communities into townships under the Group Areas Act” – and he used his photographs to objectively document social conditions in South Africa, photographs which were then published in magazines and books for wider distribution.

Unlike the more overtly activist photographs of the legendary Ernest Cole (which led to Cole fleeing South Africa after the publication of his book House of Bondage in 1967), Goldblatt’s photographs are quieter and more insidious in their criticism of the structures of the apartheid system. Through the quietness of everyday photographs, through the dignity of his subjects and through the elision of violence, Goldblatt subtly chisels away at the foundations of oppression and injustice in South African society. As Susan Aurinko observes, “One might argue that in his own silent way, he was an activist, using his camera to expose things that should never have been allowed to happen.”8

With the waning of a generation of social documentary photographers around the world who wrote history through their photographs, we leave ourselves open and vulnerable to the duplicity and misinformation of current media trends (including the viral promulgation of images).9 Photographs of truth and substance can still make a difference. I repeat the quote from Lewis Hine earlier in this text: “Photography can light up darkness and expose ignorance.”

With the rise of the far right around the contemporary world, the forces of darkness must be opposed; truth and justice must, can and will be upheld. Ignorance is not strength.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

 

Here are some of the artists that I have had to update their details:

Abbas (Iranian, 1944-2018)
John Baldessari (American, 1931-2020)
Hilla Becher (German, 1934-2015)
Richard Benson (American, 1943-2017)
James Bidgood (American, 1933-2022)
Geta Brâtescu (Romanian, 1926-2018)
Anna Blume (German, 1937-2020)
Jimmy Caruso (Canadian, 1926-2021)
Christo (Bulgaria, 1935-2020)
John Cohen (American, 1932-2019)
Joan Colom (Spanish, 1921-2017)
Marie Cosindas (American, 1923-2017)
Barbara Crane (American, 1928-2019)
Bill Cunningham (American, 1929-2016)
Destiny Deacon (Australian, Kuku/Erub/Mer, 1957-2024)
Maggie Diaz (American Australian, 1925-2016)
Elliott Erwitt (American, 1928-2023)
Joyce Evans (Australian, 1929-2019)
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023)
Robert Frank (Swiss, 1924-2019)
Vittorio Garatti (Italian, 1927-2023)
David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Arlene Gottfried (American, 1950-2017)
F. C. Gundlach (German, 1926-2021)
Károly Halász (Hungarian, 1946-2016)
Dave Heath (American, 1931-2016)
Fred Herzog (Canadian born Germany, 1930-2019)
Ken Heyman (American, 1930-2019)
Thomas Hoepker (German, 1936-2024)
Frank Horvat (Italian, 1928-2020)
Hillert Ibbeken (German, 1935-2021)
Vo Anh Khanh (Vietnamese, 1936-2023)
Jean Mohr (Swiss, 1925-2018)
Sigrid Neubert (German, 1927-2018)
Floris Neusüss (German, 1937-2020)
Ranjith Kally (South African, 1925-2017)
Sy Kattelson (American, 1923-2018)
Chris Killip (British, 1946-2020)
William Klein (French born America, 1926-2022)
Karl Lagerfeld (German, 1933-2019)
Rosemary Laing (Australian, 1959-2024)
Ian Lobb (Australian, 1948-2023)
Ulrich Mack (German, 1934-2024)
Mary Ellen Mark (American, 1940-2015)
Elfriede Mejchar (Austrian, 1924-2020)
Sonia Handelman Meyer (American, 1920-2022)
Santu Mofokeng (South African, 1956-2020)
Floris Neusüss (German, 1937-2020)
Marvin E. Newman (American, 1927-2023)
Terry O’Neill (British, 1938-2019)
Polixeni Papapetrou (Australian, 1960-2018)
Marlo Pascual (American, 1972-2020)
Peter Peryer (New Zealand, 1941-2018)
Marc Riboud (French, 1923-2016)
Robert Rooney (Australian, 1937-2017)
Lucas Samaras (American born Greece, 1936-2024)
Jurgen Schadeberg (South African born Germany, 1931-2020)
Michael Schmidt (German, 1945-2014)
Malick Sidibé (Malian, 1935-2016)
Michael Snow (Canadian, 1928-2023)
Frank Stella (American, 1936-2024)
Louis Stettner (American, 1922-2016)
Charles H. “Chuck” Stewart (American, 1927-2017)
Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934-2022)
Bill Viola (American, 1951-2024)
John F Williams (Australian, 1933-2016)
Michael Wolf (German, 1954-2019)
Ida Wyman (American, 1926-2019)
George S. Zimbel (American-Canadian, 1929-2023)

Footnotes

1/ Joyce Evans in conversation with Marcus Bunyan 2019

2/ Anonymous. “David Goldblatt,” on the MCA website October 2018 [Online] Cited 06/08/2024

3/ Anonymous. “Brief History of Gold Mining in South Africa,” on the Mining for Schools website 2022 [Online] Cited 06/08/2024

4/ Alan S. Mabin and Julian R.D. Cobbing. “World War II in South Africa,” on the Britannica website last updated Aug 5, 2024 [Online] Cited 06/08/2024

5/ David Goldblatt quoted in Anonymous. “David Goldblatt,” on the MCA website October 2018 [Online] Cited 06/08/2024

6/ Leslie Wilson and Yechen Zhao. “In the Room with David Goldblatt,” on the Art Institute of Chicago website December 19, 2023 [Online] Cited 11/07/2024

7/ Ibid.,

8/ Susan Aurinko. “Painful Truths: A Review of David Goldblatt at the Art Institute of Chicago,” on the New City Art website December 22, 2023 [Online] Cited 07/07/2024

9/ “… the French philosopher and critic, Paul Virilio, speaking of contemporary images, described them as ‘viral’. He suggests that they communicate by contamination, by infection. In our ‘media’ or ‘information’ society we now have a ‘pure seeing’; a seeing without knowing.”

Paul Virilio. “The Work of Art in the Electronic Age,” in Block No. 14, Autumn, 1988, pp. 4-7 quoted in Roberta McGrath. “Medical Police”,  in Ten.8 No. 14, 1984 quoted in Simon Watney and Sunil Gupta. “The Rhetoric of AIDS,” in Tessa Boffin and Sunil Gupta (eds.,). Ecstatic Antibodies: Resisting the AIDS Mythology. London: Rivers Osram Press, 1990, p. 143.


Many thankx to Fundación MAPFRE for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

“… the kind of photography that I am interested in is much closer to writing than to painting. Because making a photograph is rather like writing a paragraph or a short piece, and putting together a whole string of photographs is like producing a piece of writing in many ways. There is the possibility of making coherent statements in an interesting, subtle, complex way.”


David Goldblatt

 

“Apartheid became very much the central area of my work, but my real preoccupation was with our values … how did we get to be the way we are?”


David Goldblatt

 

“While Goldblatt’s style and method vary from one series to the next, the constant impartiality and benevolence of his gaze are perhaps what best describe his unique approach to social documentary photography at the crossroads with fine art. He never judges his subjects, but seeks to expose the most insidious dynamics of discrimination in the everyday – that is, in the simple ways people and their surroundings present themselves before his eyes. His work is all the more subtle in that it doesn’t always engage head-on with politics, or at least at first glance.”


Violaine Boutet de Monvel. “David Goldblatt and the Legacy of Apartheid,” on the Aperture website March 2018 [Online] Cited 30/04/2024

 

One of Goldblatt’s early methods for accessing such intimate spaces, in addition to word of mouth and fortuitous encounters, was to post classified advertisements in local newspapers requesting sitters for his portraits. Goldblatt’s ads for his personal work often included a note of reassurance, one of which gave our exhibition its title: “I would like to photograph people in their homes in Johannesburg, Randburg and Sandton. There will be no charge and one free print will be supplied. Further copies at cost price. There is no catch and no ulterior motive.”

In the most practical sense, Goldblatt’s use of “no ulterior motive” was supposed to allay concerns that he was trying to take advantage of his sitters. But this message also conveys the promise of a transparent and straightforward photographic encounter, a working method that cuts across his body of work. …

Even as he positioned himself as a photographer without an ulterior motive, Goldblatt certainly had an intention for the resulting photographs: to use them in service of understanding and representing South African social relations. He applied his analysis, captions, and sequencing to the pictures and presented them to a broad public audience. At first, much of Goldblatt’s work appeared in magazines and journals, but he labored to publish his photographs in books, finding them the ideal format to crystallize his perspective on South African people, history, and land.


Leslie Wilson and Yechen Zhao. “In the Room with David Goldblatt,” on the Art Institute of Chicago website December 19, 2023 [Online] Cited 11/07/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

The renowned South African photographer David Goldblatt (Randfontein, Union of South Africa, British Empire 1930 – Johannesburg, 2018, South Africa) dedicated his life to documenting his country and its people. His photography focused on capturing issues related to South African society and politics, subjects that are essential today for a visual understanding of one of history’s most painful processes: apartheid.

David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive, organised in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale University Art Gallery, is the first exhibition to delve into the connections and dialogues Goldblatt established with other photographers from different geographical and generational backgrounds who, like him, focused on representing the social and environmental changes taking place in their respective countries. Moreover, this ambitious project abounds in rare, old or unpublished material, and is exceptional in that it presents some series in their entirety. For all these reasons, the exhibition is intended as a fitting tribute to David Goldblatt, as well as the beginning of a new chapter in the study of his work.

Exhibition co-organised by The Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, in collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid.

Text from the Fundación MAPFRE

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive' at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid 

Installation view of the exhibition 'David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive' at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid 

 

Installation views of the exhibition David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Children on the border between Fietas and Mayfair, Johannesburg' 1949, printed later from the exhibition Exhibition: 'David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive' at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, May - August, 2024

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Children on the border between Fietas and Mayfair, Johannesburg
1949, printed later
Gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

Goldblatt caught this raucous scene during his initial foray into photography just after high school. The spontaneous interaction of children of different races on a city street clashed with the country’s emerging politics at mid-century. The year before Goldblatt made this image, a white nationalist movement fomented by Afrikaners – an ethnic group descended predominantly from Dutch settlers – had come to political power as the National Party. In 1949 the government passed legislation to authorise new racial classifications and urban racial segregation. They subsequently allocated the neighbourhoods of Fietas (known officially as Pageview) and Mayfair as areas for white residents only, enforcing segregation by fines and compulsory resettlement.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'A plot-holder, his wife, and their eldest son at lunch, Wheatlands, Randfontein' 1962, printed later

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
A plot-holder, his wife, and their eldest son at lunch, Wheatlands, Randfontein
1962, printed later
Gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

 

The artistic career of South African artist David Goldblatt (1930, Randfontein – 2018, Johannesburg) embraced both a wide geographical spread of his country and a wide variety of human situations portraying the day-to-day life of his fellow citizens during and after apartheid. From his beginnings in 1950, his work – which he has progressively reflected in numerous books – has gone hand in hand with the historical, political, social and economic evolution of South Africa. From 1999 onwards, Goldblatt adopted colour for his work, which focused on the harsh living conditions of the post-apartheid period.

Goldblatt photographed with great objectivity the “watchmen”, dissidents, settlers and victims of that regime, the cities they lived in, their buildings, the inside of their homes… His images provide an extensive and touching visual record of the racist apartheid regime, a record that never explicitly shows its violence but clearly reveals all that it represented, as he himself pointed out: […] I avoid violence. And I wouldn’t know how to handle it as a photographer if I found myself caught up in a violent scene […] But then I’ve long since realised – it took me a few years to realise – that events in themselves are not so interesting to me as the conditions that led to the events. These conditions are often quite commonplace, and yet full of what is imminent. Immanent and imminent.

David Goldblatt. No ulterior motive gathers together nearly 150 works that show the continuity and strength of his work and also offers, for the first time, connections to other South African photographers from one to three generations later who acknowledge their debt to Goldblatt as a mentor who believed deeply in the value of exchange and debate, as well as in the importance of expressing one’s own opinions.

Text from the Fundación MAPFRE website

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'A plot holder with the daughter of his servant, Wheatlands, Randfontein' 1962

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
A plot holder with the daughter of his servant, Wheatlands, Randfontein
1962
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'The son of an ostrich farmer waits with a labourer for the day's work to begin, near Oudtshoorn, Cape Province (Western Cape)' [El hijo de un criador de avestruces espera junto a un jornalero a que comience la jornada de trabajo, cerca de Oudtshoorn, Provincia del Cabo Occidental] 1966

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
The son of an ostrich farmer waits with a labourer for the day’s work to begin, near Oudtshoorn, Cape Province (Western Cape) [El hijo de un criador de avestruces espera junto a un jornalero a que comience la jornada de trabajo, cerca de Oudtshoorn, Provincia del Cabo Occidental]
1966
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Joe Maloney, boiler-hose attendant, City Deep Gold Mine' 1966

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Joe Maloney, boiler-hose attendant, City Deep Gold Mine
1966
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) '"Boss Boy" detail, Battery Reef, Randfontein Estates Gold Mine' 1966, printed later

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
“Boss Boy” detail, Battery Reef, Randfontein Estates Gold Mine
1966, printed later
Platinum print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

European settlement began at the Cape in 1652. The oldest modern structure still in existence is, appropriately, the Castle in Cape Town erected between 1666 and 1679 as a fortress to consolidate that settlement against growing opposition by indigenous people. The core of the history of this land in the 333 years since 1666 is its domination by white people, the subjection to them by force and institutionalised economic dependence of black people, and of sporadic and latterly of massively growing opposition by blacks and disaffected whites to the system of domination.

White hegemony approached its ultimate expression in the past thirty-nine years with the emergence of Afrikaner nationalism as the overwhelmingly ascendant social force in this society. The apotheosis of that force is the ideology of apartheid. There is hardly any part of life in this country that has not been profoundly affected by the quest for power, the determination to hold onto it, and the expression of that power through apartheid of the Afrikaner Nationalists and of their supporters and fellow travellers of other origins.

Innumerable structures of every imaginable kind and not a few ruins bear witness to the huge thrust of these movements across our land.

Now, Afrikaner nationalism, though by no means spent, is in decline. Change, probably convulsive, to something as yet unclear has begun. The first structures based in countervailing forces and ideology have made their tentative appearance.

David Goldblatt from the book “Structures,” 1987, p. 42

 

The fabric of this society permeates everything I do. I don’t know if this is the case with other photographers. I would dearly love to be a lyrical photographer. Every so often I try to branch out and rid myself of these concerns, but it rarely happens. You take your first breath of fresh air and you have compromised.

Recently I became very aware of the people thrown into detention. There is the elementary fact that is lost sight of in this country, that they are put in detention without trial, without recourse to the courts. Has become necessary here to remind ourselves of this fact. I have catalogued the faces fo some fo the people who have been in detention with something of their life and what happened to them in detention. I have also me with some who have been abused in detention. The photographs might in some small way, through their publication, act as a deterrent to further abuse or even to detention without trial itself. As the struggle for the survival of the apartheid system becomes more acute, so the system becomes more restrictive, especially with regard to the flow of information. We are going into a period of long darkness when the restrictions with become more severe. I am aware of photographing things that are disappearing and need to be documented, but in another sense I have a private mission to document what is happening in this country to form a record. There are many other photographers engaged in this. I regard this aspect of our work as very important, so that in the future, when the time comes, people will know what happened here, what transpired.

David Goldblatt from the book “Structures,” 1987, p. 68

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Gang on surface work, Rustenberg Platinum Mine, Rustenburg, North-West Province' [Cuadrilla en trabajos de superficie, mina de platino de Rustenberg, Provincia del Noroeste] 1971

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Gang on surface work, Rustenberg Platinum Mine, Rustenburg, North-West Province [Cuadrilla en trabajos de superficie, mina de platino de Rustenberg, Provincia del Noroeste]
1971
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Young men with dompas (an identity document that every African had to carry), White City, Jabavu, Soweto' 1972

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Young men with dompas (an identity document that every African had to carry), White City, Jabavu, Soweto
1972
Gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

Two men lean against one another tenderly as one holds up an identification document called a passbook. under the Pass Laws Act of 1952, all Black South Africans over the age of 16 were required to carry such identification at all times. Passbooks were also known as dompas, a term deriving from the phrase “dumb pass,” used to openly mock this hated tool for enforcing apartheid. Anyone stopped by police without a passbook or official permission to be in a given area could be penalised with arrest or fines. Policies that restricted the movement of Black people throughout the country have a long history in South Africa and were a key target of resistance movements.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'In the office of the funeral parlour, Orlando West, Soweto' [En la oficina de la funeraria, Orlando West, Soweto] 1972

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
In the office of the funeral parlour, Orlando West, Soweto [En la oficina de la funeraria, Orlando West, Soweto]
1972
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

In his photographs of office and office workers, Goldblatt often teased out the continuities between professional and private identities. The two women in this photograph are dressed for winter on Earth, but the art on the walls hearkens to a journey to outer space. At this moment in 1972, apartheid was so firmly in place that, for many, change was almost unthinkable – perhaps akin to landing on the moon. The artwork brings the prospect of liberty and the sheer thrill of adventure into an otherwise ordinary setting. Of course, the art might not have been their choice at all, but the photograph holds open the possibility that these women have a stake in missions long thought impossible.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Lulu Gebashe and Solomon Mlutshana, who both worked in a record shop in the city, Mofolo Park' [Lulu Gebashe y Solomon Mlutshana, que trabajaban en una tienda de discos de la ciudad, Mofolo Park] 1972

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Lulu Gebashe and Solomon Mlutshana, who both worked in a record shop in the city, Mofolo Park [Lulu Gebashe y Solomon Mlutshana, que trabajaban en una tienda de discos de la ciudad, Mofolo Park]
1972
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Miriam Diale, 5357 Orlando East, Soweto, 18 October 1972' [Miriam Diale, Orlando East n.º 5357, Soweto, 18 de octubre de 1972] 1972

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Miriam Diale, 5357 Orlando East, Soweto, 18 October 1972 [Miriam Diale, Orlando East n.º 5357, Soweto, 18 de octubre de 1972]
1972
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Wedding photography at the Oppenheimer Memorial, Jabavu, Soweto' 1972, printed later

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Wedding photography at the Oppenheimer Memorial, Jabavu, Soweto
1972, printed later
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

 

The grandson of Lithuanian refugees, David Goldblatt was born in Randfontein in 1930 and spent most of his life in Johannesburg. From a very young age he showed an interest in photography and took his first images when he was only eighteen. After the death of his father, in 1963 he decided to become a professional photographer.

David Goldblatt scrupulously examined the history and politics of South Africa, where he witnessed the rise of apartheid, its brutal segregationist policies and its eventual disappearance. His sensitive photographs offer a vision of daily life under this regime and in the complex period that followed, when he moved from black and white to colour in his work.

Employing great objectivity, Goldblatt photographed dissidents, settlers and victims of apartheid, the cities where they lived, their buildings, the interior of their homes, etc. His images configure a wide-ranging and moving visual record of this racist regime, a record which, while never explicitly showing its violence, clearly reveals everything it represented, as the artist himself pointed out: “I avoid violence. And I wouldn’t know how to handle it as a photographer if I found myself caught up in a violent scene […] But then I’ve long since realised – it took me a few years to realise – that events in themselves are not so interesting to me as the conditions that led to the events. These conditions are often quite commonplace, and yet full of what is imminent. Immanent and imminent.“

In 1998 David Goldblatt was the first South African to be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. His work has been recognised with the Hasselblad (2006) and Henri Cartier-Bresson (2009) prizes and the International Center of Photography award (2013). In 2016 he was made a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. He died in Johannesburg in 2018 at the age of eighty-eight.

David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive brings together around 150 works from several of the artist’s series with the aim of revealing the continuity of his work while also and for the first time establishing a dialogue with the work of other South African photographers of between one and three generations subsequent to Goldblatt, such as Lebohang Kganye, Ruth Seopedi Motau and Jo Ractliffe. Also on display are three mock-ups of books by Goldblatt, an aspect of his work to which he gave great importance.

The works on display are from the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Art Gallery and include important recent acquisitions of photographs by Goldblatt. Having been shown at The Art Institute of Chicago between December 2023 and March 2024, Fundación MAPFRE is now presenting the exhibition at its venue on Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid, until August this year. It will then be seen next year at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (Connecticut).

David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive is curated by Judy Ditner (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven), Leslie M. Wilson and Matthew S. Witkovsky (The Art Institute of Chicago).

 

Key themes in the exhibition

Apparent tranquility

Throughout his career Goldblatt avoided the most difficult and shocking incidents that were a daily reality under apartheid. Rather, he considered that depicting everyday life, “the quiet and commonplace where nothing ‘happened'”, allowed the viewer to draw their own conclusions. The content was implicit in the apparent tranquility and in the very precise captions that accompany these images, which show ongoing, daily expressions of racism and the economic, social and political exploitation of the Black population under white rule.

Goldblatt, No Ulterior Motive

Goldblatt’s status as a white man allowed him greater freedom of movement and he took advantage of that privilege to document life in South Africa in the most honest and direct way possible. In the early 1970s he published a classified ad which read: “I would like to photograph people in their homes […]. No ulterior motive.” Nonetheless, this impartiality concealed a critical perspective towards his country’s people, history and geography.

Apartheid

In 1948 the National Party, one of the most visible entities representing Afrikaners (a European, colonising ethnic group mainly comprising descendants of the Dutch, North Germans and French), came to power in South Africa. This minority of European origin then proceeded to institute apartheid as a State policy while promoting the ideology that people of different racial origins could not live together in equality and harmony. Successive governments reinforced the legacy of racist oppression against non-white peoples (indigenous Africans, people of Asian origin and those of mixed race), who made up more than 80% of the population. In 1990 segregation laws began to be eliminated, the activity of the African National Congress was legalised and its most important leader, Nelson Mandela, who was elected president of South Africa in 1993, was released from prison.

Press release from Fundación MAPFRE

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) ;Sylvia Gibbert in her apartment, Melrose, Johannesburg; [Sylvia Gibbert en su apartamento, Melrose, Johannesburgo] 1974

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Sylvia Gibbert in her apartment, Melrose, Johannesburg [Sylvia Gibbert en su apartamento, Melrose, Johannesburgo]
1974
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Ozzie Docrat with his daughter Nassima in his shop before its destruction under the Group Areas Act, Fietas, Johannesburg' [Ozzie Docrat con su hija Nassima en su tienda antes de ser destruida en virtud de la Ley de Agrupación por Áreas, Fietas, Johannesburgo] 1977

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Ozzie Docrat with his daughter Nassima in his shop before its destruction under the Group Areas Act, Fietas, Johannesburg [Ozzie Docrat con su hija Nassima en su tienda antes de ser destruida en virtud de la Ley de Agrupación por Áreas, Fietas, Johannesburgo]
1977
From the series Fietas
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

“I feel as though my teeth are being pulled out one by one. I run by tongue over the spaces and I try to remember the shape of what was there.” These words, spoken to Goldblatt by shop owner Ozzie Docrat, express what many residents must have experienced during their forced removal from the Johannesburg suburb of Fietas in the 1970s. Throughout the mid-20th century, Fietas was exceptional for the endurance of it multiracial, interfaith community of working- and middle-class people in the face of encroaching segregationist housing policies. In 1977, however, the government forced out Indian families like the Docrats, along with other people of color, to make this area exclusive to whites.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Sunday morning: A not-White family living illegally in the "White" group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg' [Domingo por la mañana: una familia no blanca viviendo ilegalmente en la zona "blanca" de Hillbrow, Johannesburgo] 1978

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Sunday morning: A not-White family living illegally in the “White” group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg [Domingo por la mañana: una familia no blanca viviendo ilegalmente en la zona “blanca” de Hillbrow, Johannesburgo]
1978
Pigmented inkjet print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

“Over the course of a career that spanned more than six decades, Goldblatt went looking for scenes like this one – quiet and tender, while also deeply revealing of the structures and values that constituted South African society. Though the family appears to be right at home, Goldblatt’s title shares that they were living illegally in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Hillbrow, violating laws that, under the system of segregation known as apartheid, dictated where different racial groups were permitted to reside. The cozy scene is therefore profoundly fragile because the family faced the persistent threat of removal.

This image powerfully presents the tensions that were central to what Goldblatt pursued through photography: soft furnishings and brutal laws, proximity and distance, access and exclusion, and informality and formality.”

Leslie Wilson and Yechen Zhao. “In the Room with David Goldblatt,” on the Art Institute of Chicago website December 19, 2023 [Online] Cited 11/07/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Methodists meet to find ways of reducing the racial, cultural, and class barriers that divide them, 3 July 1980' 1980, printed later

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Methodists meet to find ways of reducing the racial, cultural, and class barriers that divide them, 3 July 1980
1980, printed later
Gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

Throughout South Africa and even across the continent, religion bears a complicated history embroiled in legacies of colonisation, oppression, and apartheid. Religion holds power. It was through the cross and the bullet that the continent was dissected by European powers. It was through the pages of the Bible that apartheid was theologically justified, and it was through the Dutch Reformed Church of white Afrikaners that “the races” were declared separate as mandated by God. Yet, it was also through the World Alliance of Reformed Churches that apartheid was acknowledged as heresy. It was through the Christian ethos and through ubuntu that Archbishop Desmond Tutu guided the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission through ways of healing in a society bifurcated into “European” and “Non-White;” “have” and “have-not;” “believer” and “unbeliever.” Religion has the power to both destroy and heal a nation.

In a discussion about life under apartheid, my South African friend designated as “Coloured” – a category in between “White” and “Black African” – revealed that his parents were once denied communion on Sunday morning due to their sin of attending a “white church” while being of color. Whiteness meant purity and closeness with God; anything less than was deemed as “separate,” “other,” “unworthy” – “impure.” The sharing of bread and wine in the Christian tradition is meant to signify connection between people and between the divine. The denial of such connection, of saying that one was unworthy to drink from the same chalice because of one’s race or ethnicity, is an ultimate denial of humanity. It is an affront to the very word “communion” and an insult to fellowship. Religion was co-opted to subjugate and enforce a system of racial hierarchy. Sunday morning saw no race-mixing amongst God’s children.

Trevor O’Connor. “Religion in South Africa: The Power to Destroy and Heal a Nation,” on the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs website November 16, 2018 [Online] Cited 11/07/2024. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Saturday morning at the hypermarket: Semifinal of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition, 28 June 1980' [Sábado por la mañana en el hipermercado: semifinal del concurso Miss Piernas Bonitas, 28 de junio de 1980] 1980

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Saturday morning at the hypermarket: Semifinal of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition, 28 June 1980 [Sábado por la mañana en el hipermercado: semifinal del concurso Miss Piernas Bonitas, 28 de junio de 1980]
1980
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Apostolic Faith Mission (AGS), Birchleigh, Kempton Park, 28 December 1983' [Misión de la Fe Apostólica (AGS, en afrikáans), Birchleigh, Kempton Park, 28 de diciembre de 1983] 1983

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Apostolic Faith Mission (AGS), Birchleigh, Kempton Park, 28 December 1983 [Misión de la Fe Apostólica (AGS, en afrikáans), Birchleigh, Kempton Park, 28 de diciembre de 1983]
1983
Gelatin silver print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised donation of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

Goldblatt’s photographs of churches were so beautiful. They were wonderful architectural images, but they were deep with meaning capturing the issues of a missionary religion in a nonnative land. They symbolise the conflicts within the country which mirrored issues throughout other parts of the world. When I thought about South Africa it was about apartheid and relationships between blacks and whites, I had not considered the impact of western religion on the indigenous population (I should have because it is an issue still in our country today), nor did I know about the issues with the Muslim population in the country. In researching the issue of religion further, it appears the conflicts and violence in South Africa related to it appear to be ongoing to this day.

William Carl Valentine. “David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive,” on the William Carl Valentine website June 15, 2024 [Online] Cited 06/07/2024

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Thirteen kilometres of this coastline were a White Group Area, Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, 9 January 1986' [Trece kilómetros de esta costa eran una zona reservada para blancos, Bloubergstrand, Ciudad del Cabo, 9 de enero de 1986] 1986

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Thirteen kilometres of this coastline were a White Group Area, Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, 9 January 1986 [Trece kilómetros de esta costa eran una zona reservada para blancos, Bloubergstrand, Ciudad del Cabo, 9 de enero de 1986]
1986
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Assegais, shield, and 23-metre-high cross of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Afrika, (Dutch Reformed Mission Church to Africans), which stands above Dingane's destroyed capital, uMgungundlovu. The church was burnt down in 1985; Dinganestad, Natal' 1989, printed later

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Assegais, shield, and 23-metre-high cross of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Afrika, (Dutch Reformed Mission Church to Africans), which stands above Dingane’s destroyed capital, uMgungundlovu. The church was burnt down in 1985; Dinganestad, Natal
1989, printed later
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

 

David Goldblatt (1930-2018) scrupulously examined the history and politics of South Africa, where he witnessed the rise of apartheid, its divisive and brutal policies, and its eventual demise. His sensitive photographs offer a view of daily life under the apartheid system and its complex aftermath. Goldblatt was drawn, in his own words, “to the quiet and commonplace where nothing ‘happened’ and yet all was contained and immanent.” Accompanied by precise captions, his images expose everyday manifestations of racism and point to Black dispossession – economic, social, and political – under white rule.

The grandson of Lithuanian Jews who had fled Europe in the 1890s, Goldblatt spent most of his life in Johannesburg. Although not part of the ascendant Dutch Protestant community, his position as a white man allowed him greater freedom of movement and he leveraged this privilege to document life in South Africa as honestly and straightforwardly as possible. In the early 1970s, he placed a classified ad: “I would like to photograph people in their homes […]. No ulterior motive.” Yet this professed impartiality masked a critical perspective toward South Africa’s people, history, and geography.

Goldblatt first took up the camera in 1948, the year the apartheid system was introduced, and over the next seven decades he assiduously photographed South Africa’s people, landscape, and built environment. Recognising the layered connections in his oeuvre, this exhibition proceeds thematically rather than chronologically: here, black-and-white photographs taken during the period of institutionalised segregation are interwoven with his work in colour from the 1990s on. Six thematic sections explore Goldblatt’s engagement with apartheid, its contradictions, and its multifaceted legacy.

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive' at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid showing at left, wall text from the section 'Informality'

 

Installation view of the exhibition David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid showing at left, wall text from the section ‘Informality’ (see below)

 

1/ Informality

Goldblatt’s photographs, especially his portraits, ask us to consider the informal and often idiosyncratic ways people resist oppression. Attuned to how his status and relative freedom as a white man influenced all social encounters, Goldblatt gained access to intimate moments of South Africans’ everyday lives by thoughtfully avoiding behaviour that might suggest an exercise of authority. Instead, he observed how frequently people segregated by law engaged in unsanctioned social and economic exchanges. Whether photographing descendants of Dutch colonists farming in the rural Cape in the early 1960s for the series Some Afrikaners Photographed, or a young Black couple in Johannesburg, Goldblatt emphasised the improvised realities of everyday life. This interest shifted in later years to the housing and mercantile arrangements dubbed South Africa’s “informal economy,” as well as to unofficial monuments to historical figures and events.

2/ Working people

Even as the architects of apartheid sought to separate South Africans, the system functioned through an economic structure that placed people into tense proximity on a daily basis. White families hired Black workers to raise their children and clean their homes; mines owned and managed by whites depended on people of color to perform the most dangerous labor. Government-dictated racial categories profoundly shaped the jobs that people could hold, creating strict hierarchies in workplaces. Goldblatt highlighted these inequalities with pictures like one of a domestic worker rushing to meet her employer. At the same time, he attended to how people retained a sense of self and dignity in their labor, as in his portraits of mineworkers who chose to pose for his camera in their traditional clothing.

3/ Extraction

Born in the mining town of Randfontein, Goldblatt began his career by looking at the extractive economy built by colonial ventures to exploit its natural resources. Goldblatt created his earliest series, On the Mines (1964–73), while working as a photographer for the country’s biggest mining corporations. The series showed how a predominantly Black migrant labor force performed the most dangerous work in gold and platinum mines, work that primarily enriched their white bosses. Decades later, the photographer found similar manifestations of inequality while recording the toxic legacy of asbestos mining and its disproportionate impact on Black communities.

4/ Near/Far

The white supremacist National Party, led by Afrikaners (descendants of predominantly Dutch settlers) and English-speaking whites, attempted to impose distance between people of different racial categories in South Africa. Goldblatt looked at how the National Party government pulled people from their homes to realise its vision of racial segregation, dispossessing and dispersing Black and Indian residents to make room for new white neighbourhoods.

However, the exclusive urban centres the party sought to create could not function without a daily influx of labourers and domestic workers from the country’s diverse population. Goldblatt was interested in the ways closeness continued to manifest even when distance was dictated by law, a status quo that also affected his relationship with the people he photographed. These images wryly register the constant collision of segregated groups in public and private spaces throughout the country.

5/ Disbelief

The illogic of apartheid led to widespread skepticism and practices of self-delusion among those who actively perpetuated the system. The photographs in this section capture the sense of disbelief with the labyrinthine, endlessly rewritten laws intended to legitimise a morally bankrupt system of abuse and oppression. Goldblatt rendered this state of affairs in brilliant deadpan, giving visual form to the incredulity that all but the most cynical and opportunistic beneficiaries of apartheid must have felt. Fortress-like churches of the Dutch Reformed Protestant faith mix with absurd scenes of suburban leisure in whites-only areas, while stony or stoic gazes meet moments of sudden demolition. Even after the official end of apartheid, Goldblatt continued to photograph sites that inspired feelings of disbelief as seen in his photographs of incomplete housing developments.

6/ Assembly

How do people come together in a country divided by segregation? In everything, from the bench they could sit on to where they could live, South Africans were physically separated by race. In the 1950s, protests against these new policies were common, but in the decades that followed, the government introduced increasingly brutal tactics to repress dissent and severely curtailed the right to assemble.

Goldblatt avoided straightforward depictions of open rebellion, seeing his country’s political struggles as clearly in the routine occasions that brought people together by choice or necessity. In later decades, he engaged more with overtly political subjects, turning his camera to newly elected lawmakers and young South Africans openly protesting colonial legacies in their post-apartheid society.

7/ Connections

Beyond his own work, Goldblatt was committed to aiding future generations of South African photographers. He helped found the Market Photo Workshop in 1989 to offer instruction and support to emerging, socially engaged photographers, hoping the school would be “a small counter to the ethnic surgery that had so successfully separated South Africans under apartheid.” Today, it remains a centre of education and community for photography in Johannesburg. Lebohang Kganye, Sabelo Mlangeni, Ruth Seopedi Motau, and Zanele Muholi are alumni with close ties to Goldblatt, who was a friend and mentor. All have explored themes of belonging, loss, memory, migration, and representation while uncovering original, often deeply personal ways to examine South Africa’s people, places, and policies.

Like Goldblatt, the artists in this gallery – Ernest Cole, Santu Mofokeng, and Jo Ractliffe – use the camera to reflect critically on their country’s society and politics. Cole used his camera to confront sweeping social, political, and environmental change from the 1950s to the 1980s. Mofokeng was a member of the Afrapix collective of South African documentary photographers throughout the 1980s. A former student of Goldblatt, he received his first long-term position in photography in part through Goldblatt’s recommendation. Ractliffe’s landscape photographs address issues of displacement and conflict, capturing the traces of often violent histories. She knew Goldblatt as a friend and colleague and has taught at the Market Photo Workshop, a vitally important school for photography in Johannesburg whose alumni are featured in gallery 3.

Text from the exhibition

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Victoria Cobokana, housekeeper, in her employer's dining room with her son Sifiso and daughter Onica, Johannesburg, June 1999. Victoria died of AIDS on 13 December 1999, Sifiso dies of AIDS on 12 January 2000, Onica died of AIDS in May 2000, June 1999' 1999

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Victoria Cobokana, housekeeper, in her employer’s dining room with her son Sifiso and daughter Onica, Johannesburg, June 1999. Victoria died of AIDS on 13 December 1999, Sifiso dies of AIDS on 12 January 2000, Onica died of AIDS in May 2000, June 1999
1999
Pigmented inkjet print
The Art Institute of Chicago, Promised gift of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

One might argue that in his own silent way, he was an activist, using his camera to expose things that should never have been allowed to happen. A single color image seems to define the show – in it, a housekeeper sits in her employer’s dining room with her two children on her lap. Behind her a round window forms a halo around her wrapped head, Madonna-like. The didactic tells us that all three of them died of AIDS within months. Such is the inequity of South Africa, quietly portrayed by David Goldblatt over seven decades.

Susan Aurinko. “Painful Truths: A Review of David Goldblatt at the Art Institute of Chicago,” on the New City Art website December 22, 2023 [Online] Cited 07/07/2024

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Swerwers, nomadic sheep shearers and farmworkers descended from the San hunter-gatherers and Khoi pastoralists. Without work for four months they lived in the gang, the corridor between farms, fences and roads, hunting, fishing when they could, and eating roadkill, near Nuwe Rooiberg, Northern Cape, 18 September 2002' [Swerwers, esquiladores de ovejas y trabajadores agrícolas nómadas, descendientes de los cazadores-recolectores san y de los pastores khoi. Sin trabajo durante cuatro meses, vivían en el paso, el corredor que hay entre las vallas de las granjas y las carreteras, cazando, pescando cuando podían y comiendo animales atropellados, cerca de Nuwe Rooiberg, Cabo Septentrional, 18 de septiembre de 2002] 2002, printed 2005

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Swerwers, nomadic sheep shearers and farmworkers descended from the San hunter-gatherers and Khoi pastoralists. Without work for four months they lived in the gang, the corridor between farms, fences and roads, hunting, fishing when they could, and eating roadkill, near Nuwe Rooiberg, Northern Cape, 18 September 2002 [Swerwers, esquiladores de ovejas y trabajadores agrícolas nómadas, descendientes de los cazadores-recolectores san y de los pastores khoi. Sin trabajo durante cuatro meses, vivían en el paso, el corredor que hay entre las vallas de las granjas y las carreteras, cazando, pescando cuando podían y comiendo animales atropellados, cerca de Nuwe Rooiberg, Cabo Septentrional, 18 de septiembre de 2002]
2002, printed 2005
Pigmented inkjet print
The Art Institute of Chicago, Promised gift of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Highly carcinogenic blue asbestos waste on the Owendale Asbestos Mine tailings dump, near Postmasburg, Northern Cape. The prevailing wind was in the direction of the mine officials' houses at right. 21 December, 2002' 2002, printed 2005

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Highly carcinogenic blue asbestos waste on the Owendale Asbestos Mine tailings dump, near Postmasburg, Northern Cape. The prevailing wind was in the direction of the mine officials’ houses at right. 21 December, 2002
2002, printed 2005
Pigmented inkjet print
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

Installation view of the exhibition David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid showing at right, Goldblatt's 'Near Brak Pannen on the Beaufort West-Fraserburg road, Nuweveld, Karoo, 30 May 2004'

 

Installation view of the exhibition David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid showing at right, Goldblatt’s Near Brak Pannen on the Beaufort West-Fraserburg road, Nuweveld, Karoo, 30 May 2004 (2004, below)

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Near Brak Pannen on the Beaufort West-Fraserburg road, Nuweveld, Karoo, 30 May 2004' 2004

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Near Brak Pannen on the Beaufort West-Fraserburg road, Nuweveld, Karoo, 30 May 2004
2004
Pigmented inkjet print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised gift of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier

 

Next to a road that shoots arrow-straight to the horizon, a pool of water evaporates from the intense sunlight of the Karoo, the semi-arid region that separates Cape Town from South Africa’s interior. The scarcity of water and the harsh climate in this enormous area impeded white settlers from centuries, an the lack of grand natural or manmade features confounded their desire to assimilate it into their idea of a beautiful landscape. From the 2000s onward Goldblatt made much of his new work by driving great distances through the Karoo. He appreciated the way it resisted easy aestheticisation, calling it the “fuck-all landscape.”

Wall text from the exhibition

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Incomplete houses, part of a stalled municipal development of 1,000 houses. The funding allocation was made in 1998, building started in 2003. Officials and a politician gave various reasons for the stalling of the scheme: Shortage of water, theft of materials, problems with sewage disposal, problems caused by the high clay content of the soil, and shortage of funds. By August 2006, 420 houses had been completed, Lady Grey, Eastern Cape, 5 August 2006' [Casas sin terminar, parte de una promoción municipal de 1.000 viviendas paralizada. La financiación se consignó en 1998 y la construcción empezó en 2003. Los funcionarios y un político dieron varias razones para la paralización del proyecto: escasez de agua, robo de materiales, problemas con la evacuación de aguas residuales, problemas causados por el alto contenido de arcilla del suelo y escasez de fondos. En agosto de 2006 se habían terminado 420 viviendas, Lady Grey, Cabo Oriental, 5 de agosto de 2006] 2006

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
Incomplete houses, part of a stalled municipal development of 1,000 houses. The funding allocation was made in 1998, building started in 2003. Officials and a politician gave various reasons for the stalling of the scheme: Shortage of water, theft of materials, problems with sewage disposal, problems caused by the high clay content of the soil, and shortage of funds. By August 2006, 420 houses had been completed, Lady Grey, Eastern Cape, 5 August 2006 [Casas sin terminar, parte de una promoción municipal de 1.000 viviendas paralizada. La financiación se consignó en 1998 y la construcción empezó en 2003. Los funcionarios y un político dieron varias razones para la paralización del proyecto: escasez de agua, robo de materiales, problemas con la evacuación de aguas residuales, problemas causados por el alto contenido de arcilla del suelo y escasez de fondos. En agosto de 2006 se habían terminado 420 viviendas, Lady Grey, Cabo Oriental, 5 de agosto de 2006]
2006
Pigmented inkjet print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'At Kewin Kwaneles Takwaito Barber, Landsdowne Road, Cape Town in the time of AIDS, 16 May 2007' 2007

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
At Kewin Kwaneles Takwaito Barber, Landsdowne Road, Cape Town in the time of AIDS, 16 May 2007
2007
Pigmented inkjet print
The Art Institute of Chicago, promised gift of Cecily Cameron and Derek Schrier

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'The dethroning of Cecil John Rhodes, after the throwing of human feces on the statue and the agreement of the university to the demands of students for its removal, the University of Cape Town, 9 April 2015' [El derrocamiento de Cecil John Rhodes después de arrojar heces humanas contra la estatua y de que la universidad accediera a las demandas de los estudiantes para su retirada, Universidad de Ciudad del Cabo, 9 de abril de 2015] 2015

 

David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018)
The dethroning of Cecil John Rhodes, after the throwing of human feces on the statue and the agreement of the university to the demands of students for its removal, the University of Cape Town, 9 April 2015 [El derrocamiento de Cecil John Rhodes después de arrojar heces humanas contra la estatua y de que la universidad accediera a las demandas de los estudiantes para su retirada, Universidad de Ciudad del Cabo, 9 de abril de 2015]
2015
Carbon ink print
Yale University Art Gallery, New haven, Connecticut, purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

 

Here, Goldblatt joined a mass of onlookers recording the removal of the statue of 19th-century British mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Rhodes vastly expanded European colonial rule on the African continent and exploited local labour to amass immense wealth. Disgusted by what they viewed as a symbol of white supremacy, student activists successfully campaigned to take down the statue honouring Rhodes.

UCT responded to this and related student protests by forming a committee to evaluate art on campus, intending to remove or hide problematic works from view. While Goldblatt had promised his archive to the university, he became concerned that this committee might censor art ad free speech. He ultimately withdrew his offer in 2017, bequeathing his archive to Yale University instead. In response to this decision, scholar Njabulo S. Ndebele has asked. “Was Goldblatt worried that the photographs would not survive the tests of freedom, even after they had survived those of oppression?”

Wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Fundación MAPFRE
Recoletos Exhibition Hall
Paseo Recoletos 23, 28004 Madrid

Opening hours:
Mondays (except holidays): 2pm – 8pm
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am – 8pm
Sunday and holidays: 11am – 7pm

Fundación MAPFRE website

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Exhibition: ‘Nineteenth-Century Photography Now’ at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Exhibition dates: 9th April – 7th July, 2024

Curators: the exhibition is curated by Karen Hellman, former associate curator in the Department of Photographs. Carolyn Peter, assistant curator in the Department of Photographs, Getty Museum, served as organising curator with assistance from Claire L’Heureux, former Department of Photographs graduate intern and Antares Wells, curatorial assistant

 

At left, Julia Margaret Cameron (British born India, 1815-1879) 'Florence after the Manner of the Old Masters' 1872; and at right, Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953) 'After Manet' 2003 from the exhibition 'Nineteenth-Century Photography Now' at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, April - July, 2024

 

At left, Julia Margaret Cameron (British born India, 1815-1879) Florence after the Manner of the Old Masters 1872; and at right, Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953) After Manet 2003 from the ‘Identity’ section of the exhibition

 

 

Magdalene Keaney, curator of the exhibition Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In, observes that the exhibition “poses questions about how we might think in new ways about relationships between 19th and 20th century photographic practice…”

As does this exhibition:

~ Everything emerges from something. One must be “mindful of the origins and essence of photography.” (Moriyama)

~ History often repeats itself in different forms.

~ Memory often returns in fragmentary form.

~ The wisdom and spirit of the past speaks to the practitioners of the future.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

NB: Transubstantiation, an un/explainable change in form, substance, or appearance (from the Latin roots trans, “across or beyond,” and substania, “substance”)


Many thankx to the J. Paul Getty Museum for allowing me to publish the photographs in the website. Please click on the photographs  for a larger version of the image.

 

 

“Ms. Hellman, a former associate curator, inspired by her work with the Bayard materials, conceived “Nineteenth-Century Photography Now” as a way to access the influence that early photographers still have. The exhibition includes work from the past by 23 named and three anonymous photographers plus an additional 16 included in an album; there are 21 present-day artists. It is organised around five themes: Identity, Time, Spirit, Landscape and Circulation. The picture that serves as an introduction to the show is “Untitled ‘point de vue'” (1827) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a faded heliograph on pewter, that Daido Moriyama keeps a reproduction in his studio; the wall text quotes him saying, “it serves as a gentle daily reminder to be mindful of the origins and essence of photography.” There are two photographs by Mr. Moriyama prompted by Niépce’s bit of primitive technology.”


William Meyers. “Photography’s Past and Present at the Getty Center,” on The Wall Street Journal website May 29, 2024 [Online] Cited 16/06/2024

 

 

The earliest photographs – often associated with small, faded, sepia-toned images – may seem to belong to a bygone era, but many of the conventions established during photography’s earliest years persist today. Organised around five themes dating back to the medium’s beginnings, this exhibition explores nineteenth-century photographs through the work of twenty-one contemporary artists. These interchanges between the first decades of the medium and the most recent invite us to reimagine nineteenth-century photography while exploring its complexities.

Text from the J. Paul Getty Museum website

 

Julia Margaret Cameron (British born India, 1815-1879) 'Florence after the Manner of the Old Masters' 1872 from the exhibition 'Nineteenth-Century Photography Now' at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, April - July, 2024

 

Julia Margaret Cameron (British born India, 1815-1879)
Florence after the Manner of the Old Masters
1872
Albumen silver print
Image: 34 x 25.6cm (13 3/8 x 10 1/16 in.)
Mount: 43.3 x 32.4cm (17 1/16 x 12 3/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

Portrait of Florence Fisher posing with a rose stem with the leaves attached. She holds the rose in place with one arm folded across her chest.

 

Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953) 'After Manet' 2003

 

Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953)
After Manet
2003
From the series May Days Long Forgotten
Chromogenic print
Object: 84.3cm (33 3/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Carrie Mae Weems

 

The black and white photograph – one from the nine-part series May Days Long Forgotten – depicts four African American girls in summer dresses, with garlands in their hair, reclining on a lawn. The piece is mounted in a circular frame prepared by the artist, and is number five of an edition of eight.

 

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (French, 1765-1833) 'Untitled 'point de vue'' 1827

 

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (French, 1765-1833)
Untitled ‘point de vue’
1827
Heliograph on pewter
16.7 x 20.3 x .15cm

 

The invention of photography was announced simultaneously in France and England in 1839, dazzling the public and sending waves of excitement around the world. These astonishing breakthroughs depended upon centuries of developments in chemistry, optics, and the visual arts, accelerating in the decades after 1790. The Niépce Heliograph was made in 1827, during this period of fervent experimentation. It is the earliest photograph produced with the aid of the camera obscura known to survive today.

Text from the Harry Ransom Center website

 

At left, André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819-1889) 'Uncut Sheet of Cartes-de-Visite Portraits', 1860s; and at right, Paul Mpagi Sepuya (American, b. 1982) 'Daylight Studio with Garden Cuttings (_DSF0340)' 2022

 

At left, André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819-1889) Uncut Sheet of Cartes-de-Visite Portraits, 1860s; and at right, Paul Mpagi Sepuya (American, b. 1982) Daylight Studio with Garden Cuttings (_DSF0340) 2022

 

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877) '[A Stem of Delicate Leaves of an Umbrellifer]' probably 1843-1846

 

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
[A Stem of Delicate Leaves of an Umbrellifer]
Probably 1843-1846
Photogenic drawing negative
Image: 18.1 x 22.1cm (7 1/8 x 8 11/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

The exceptional boldness of this image conveys a visual impression that at first may seem quite unlike other of William Henry Fox Talbot’s pictures. He made it with the same photogenic drawing process he used for much of his work by placing the stem of leaves directly on top of the prepared paper and then exposing to sunlight without the aid of a camera. Although the original plant was delicate, its sharply delineated white shadow on the rich dark brown background creates a graphic, two-tone effect. The same specimen was used in a slightly different orientation to make a negative that is preserved in one of the family albums formerly at the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock and now at the British Library, London.

Other visually similar works in Talbot’s oeuvre help us to understand what we are seeing here. Some of them show the interior structure of the plant specimens he photographed, proving that the negatives at first had fuller details. Because the most vulnerable sections of the silver-based images are those that are light in tone, these areas will fade disproportionately faster than the darker parts. In this case, the lightest tones would have been in the interior spaces of the plant, and these at some point faded. It is unlikely that Talbot saw the same picture we see today, at least not when he first made it, but the boldness of the present state reminds us that changes over time can create as well as destroy.

Adapted from Larry Schaaf. William Henry Fox Talbot, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002), 68. © 2002 J. Paul Getty Trust. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, b. 1948) 'A Stem of Delicate Leaves of an Umbrellifer, circa 1843-1846' 2009

 

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, b. 1948)
A Stem of Delicate Leaves of an Umbrellifer, circa 1843-1846
2009
Toned gelatin silver print
Image: 93.7 × 74.9cm (36 7/8 × 29 1/2 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Gift of the artist
© Hiroshi Sugimoto

 

“To look at Fox Talbot’s earliest experiments, the blurred and hazy images suffuse the excited anticipation of discovering how light could transfer the shape of things onto paper. … I decided to collect Fox Talbot’s earliest negatives, from a time in photographic history very likely before positive images existed, and print the photographs that not even he saw.”

~ Hiroshi Sugimoto (p. 349, in Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2005)

 

Hiroshi Sugimoto visited the Getty Museum in 2007 to study the earliest photographs in the collection. After photographing some of William Henry Fox Talbot’s photogenic drawing negatives, he produced large-scale prints and coloured them with toning agents to replicate the hues of the paper negatives. The scale of the enlarged prints reveals the fibers of the original paper, which create delicate patterns embedded in the images.

 

At left, Herbert Bell et al, '[Amateur World Tour Album, taken with early Kodak cameras, plus purchased travel photographs by various photographers]' (2 page spread); and at right, Stephanie Syjuco (American born Philippines, b. 1974) 'Herbaria' 2021 (detail)

 

At left, Herbert Bell et al, [Amateur World Tour Album, taken with early Kodak cameras, plus purchased travel photographs by various photographers] (2 page spread); and at right, Stephanie Syjuco (American born Philippines, b. 1974) Herbaria 2021 (detail)

 

Herbert Bell (English, 1856-1946) Frederick Nutt Broderick (English, about 1854-1913) Gustave Hermans (Belgian, 1856-1934) Anthony Horner (English, 1853-1923) Michael Horner (English, 1843-1869) C. W. J. Johnson (American, 1833-1903) Léon & Lévy (French, active 1864-1913 or 1920) Léopold Louis Mercier (French, b. 1866) Neurdein Frères (French, founded 1860s, dissolved 1918) Louis Parnard (French, 1840-1893) Alfred Pettitt (English, 1820-1880) Francis Godolphin Osborne Stuart (British born Scotland, 1843-1923) Unknown maker Valentine & Sons (Scottish, founded 1851, dissolved 1910) L. P. Vallée (Canadian, 1837-1905) York and Son J. Kühn (French, active Paris, France 1885 - early 20th century) '[Amateur World Tour Album, taken with early Kodak cameras, plus purchased travel photographs by various photographers]' (2 page spread)

 

Herbert Bell (English, 1856-1946)
Frederick Nutt Broderick (English, about 1854-1913)
Gustave Hermans (Belgian, 1856-1934)
Anthony Horner (English, 1853-1923)
Michael Horner (English, 1843-1869)
C. W. J. Johnson (American, 1833-1903)
Léon & Lévy (French, active 1864-1913 or 1920)
Léopold Louis Mercier (French, b. 1866)
Neurdein Frères (French, founded 1860s, dissolved 1918)
Louis Parnard (French, 1840-1893)
Alfred Pettitt (English, 1820-1880)
Francis Godolphin Osborne Stuart (British born Scotland, 1843-1923)
Unknown maker
Valentine & Sons (Scottish, founded 1851, dissolved 1910)
L. P. Vallée (Canadian, 1837-1905)
York and Son
J. Kühn (French, active Paris, France 1885 – early 20th century)
[Amateur World Tour Album, taken with early Kodak cameras, plus purchased travel photographs by various photographers] (2 page spread)
Albumen silver print
Closed: 35.4 x 28 x 3.5cm (13 15/16 x 11 x 1 3/8 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Google Arts & Culture website

 

Includes amateur photographs taken with early Kodak cameras, including the original Kodak or Kodak no. 1, and Kodak no. 2 cameras, as well as commercially produced images.

 

Stephanie Syjuco (American born Philippines, b. 1974) 'Herbaria' 2021 (detail)

 

Stephanie Syjuco (American born Philippines, b. 1974)
Herbaria (detail)
2021
From the series Pileups
Hand-assembled pigmented inkjet prints on Hahnemühle Baryta
Framed [Outer Dim]: 121.9 x 91.4cm (48 x 36 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Stephanie Syjuco

 

A collage composed of diverse naturalist archival sources, including photographs of bones, foliage, and crystal formations.

 

At left, Paul-Marie-Léon Regnard (French, 1850-1927) 'Passionate Ecstatic Position/Expression' 1878; and at right, Laura Larson (American, b. 1965) 'The Mind Is a Muscle' 2019

 

At left, Paul-Marie-Léon Regnard (French, 1850-1927) Passionate Ecstatic Position/Expression 1878; and at right, Laura Larson (American, b. 1965) The Mind Is a Muscle 2019

 

Paul-Marie-Léon Regnard (French, 1850-1927) 'Passionate Ecstatic Position/Expression' 1878 Part of 'Iconographie Photographique de la Salpetriere' (Service de M. Charcot)

 

Paul-Marie-Léon Regnard (French, 1850-1927)
Passionate Ecstatic Position/Expression
1878
Part of Iconographie Photographique de la Salpetriere (Service de M. Charcot)
Photogravure
Image: 10.3 x 7.1cm (4 1/16 x 2 13/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

Laura Larson (American, b. 1965) 'The Mind Is a Muscle' 2019

 

Laura Larson (American, b. 1965)
The Mind Is a Muscle
2019
From the series City of Incurable Women
Inkjet print
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Courtesy of and © Laura Larson

 

 

At first glance, photographs made in the 19th century may seem like faded relics of an increasingly distant and forgotten age, yet they persist in inspiring, challenging, and resonating with artists today.

Nineteenth-Century Photography Now, on view April 9 through July 7, 2024 at the Getty Center, offers new perspectives on early photography by looking through the lens of contemporary artists who respond directly to their historical themes and subject matter.

“This exhibition provides an opportunity to connect visitors with some of the earliest photographs in the Museum’s collection, now almost two centuries old, via the responses of contemporary makers,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “The revelatory ability of early photography to capture images of the world around us still resonates with practitioners today, and bridges between past and present photography are as active and relevant as they have ever been.”

Organised around five themes, dating back to the medium’s beginnings, Identity, Time, Spirit, Landscape, and Circulation, this exhibition explores 19th-century photographs through the work of 21 contemporary artists. Reflecting the inventiveness of early practitioners as well as the more disturbing historical aspects of their era, these interchanges between the first decades of the medium and the most recent invite us to reimagine 19th century photography while exploring its complexities.

In their work, artists Daido Moriyama, Hanako Murakami, and Carrie Mae Weems look back to the invention of photography to convey a sense of how this revolutionary discovery changed people’s perceptions.

As is still the case today, the most popular subjects for the camera in the 19th century were people. In the galleries focused on Identity, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Myra Greene respond to the complex history of photographic portraiture while Laura Larson, Stephanie Solinas, and Fiona Tan investigate the pseudosciences of the 19th century and how they reinforced stereotypes and identification systems that impact us today.

Photography and Time have been inextricably linked ever since early inventors struggled to permanently fix a fleeting moment on a sheet of paper. This section includes work by Lisa Oppenheim and Liz Deschenes exploring 19th-century photographers’ technical innovations and the ways in which the medium affects our perception of time.

The genre of Spirit photography emerged from the Victorian obsession with death in Europe and North America. Photographers exploited the ability to manipulate photographic images, employing multiple exposures and staged photography to create otherworldly scenes or to summon loved ones back from the dead. In this section, Khadija Saye and Lieko Shiga respond to the possibilities that spirit photography offers in rendering the unseen.

19th-century photographers went to great lengths to make images of remote Landscapes. Government-sponsored surveys and expeditionary programs employed the camera to justify the expansion and to record the resulting military conflicts. Mark Ruwedel, Michelle Stuart, and An-My Lê re-envision some of these same historical landscapes and offer up new ones that bring the past closer to our present.

By the middle of the 19th century, thousands of photographs were in Circulation worldwide, the result of photographers’ ability to reproduce the same image multiple times. Pictures of historical events, tourist destinations, and anthropological expeditions made the world seem more accessible, but with time and distance, they became disconnected from their original contexts. In this section, early photographs appear next to projects that make these historical absences present. Wendy Red Star, Stephanie Syjuco, Ken Gonzales-Day, and Andrea Chung recover what has been lost, calling out the residual effects of the 19th-century photograph on our present knowledge of global cultures and histories.

“Through the works of these visionary contemporary artists, 19th-century photography is not faded and dead but very much alive, an active material that enables us to rethink the medium and our relationship to it,” says Karen Hellman, curator of the exhibition.

Nineteenth-Century Photography Now is curated by Karen Hellman, former associate curator in the Department of Photographs. Carolyn Peter, assistant curator in the Department of Photographs, Getty Museum, served as organising curator with assistance from Claire L’Heureux, former Department of Photographs graduate intern and Antares Wells, curatorial assistant.

Related programming includes Who or What is Missing in Nineteenth-Century Photography?, a discussion featuring artists Laura Larson, Wendy Red Star, and Paul Mpagi Sepuya in a conversation about their artistic practices and how they are engaging with, and critiquing photography from the 19th century, and Art Break: The Precarious Nature of Photography, Society, and Life, June 6, 12pm. Artist Phil Chang talks with curator Carolyn Peter about his series “Unfixed” on view in Nineteenth-Century Photography Now and how an economic crisis and a pandemic inspired him to create photographs that will intentionally fade away to express the fragility of societal systems and life.

Press release from the J. Paul Getty Museum website

 

Introduction

 

At left, Maker unknown. 'Kuroda Yasaburo, 50 Years Old' January 6, 1882; and at right, Myra Greene (American, b. 1975) 'Undertone #10' 2017-2018

 

At left, Maker unknown Kuroda Yasaburo, 50 Years Old January 6, 1882; and at right, Myra Greene (American, b. 1975) Undertone #10 2017-2018

 

Introduction

The earliest photographs – often associated with small, faded, sepia-toned images – may seem to belong to a bygone era, but many of the conventions established during photography’s earliest years persist today. Organised around five themes dating back to the medium’s beginnings, this exhibition explores nineteenth-century photographs through the work of twenty-one contemporary artists. Reflecting the inventiveness of early practitioners as well as the more disturbing historical aspects of their era, these interchanges between the first decades of the medium and the most recent invite us to reimagine nineteenth-century photography while exploring its complexities.

 

Maker unknown. 'Kuroda Yasaburo, 50 Years Old' January 6, 1882

 

Maker unknown
Kuroda Yasaburo, 50 Years Old
January 6, 1882
Ambrotype
Closed: 11.5 x 9 x 1cm (4 1/2 x 3 9/16 x 3/8 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Gift of Virginia Heckert in memory of Gordon Baldwin

 

Myra Greene (American, b. 1975) 'Undertone #10' 2017-2018

 

Myra Greene (American, b. 1975)
Undertone #10
2017-2018
Ambrotype
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Myra Greene

 

__________________________________________

Identity

 

At left, Various makers. 'Pickpockets at the Universal Exposition of 1889' 1889; and at right, Fiona Tan (Indonesia, b. 1966) 'Marie Thiriot' 2021

 

At left, Various makers Pickpockets at the Universal Exposition of 1889 1889; and at right, Fiona Tan (Indonesia, b. 1966) Marie Thiriot 2021

 

Fiona Tan (Indonesia, b. 1966) 'Marie Thiriot' 2021

 

Fiona Tan (Indonesia, b. 1966)
Marie Thiriot
2021
From the series Pickpockets
HD video installation, stereo, flat-screen monitor
Courtesy of the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London
© Fiona Tan
Photo: Frith Street Gallery CC

 

‘As an artist working almost entirely with time-based and lens-based media, time is one of my major tools … time is both tool with which to shape and chisel and material to fold, distort and configure.’

Fiona Tan (b. 1966, Pekanbaru) explores history and time and our place within them, working within the contested territory of representation. Deeply embedded in all of Tan’s works is her fascination with the mutability of identity, the deceptive nature of representation and the play of memory across time and space in a world increasingly shaped by global culture. She investigates how we represent ourselves and the mechanisms that determine how we interpret the representation of others. …

A testament to Tan’s passion for archives, her video installation Pickpockets (2020) stems from an album of photographs she came across when in residence at the Getty Research Center, Los Angeles. It contained early examples of mugshots taken of pickpockets apprehended at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889. Fascinated by the subjects of these portraits, their names and countries of origin, and their unknown stories, she invited a group of writers to devise monologues from the point of view of these individuals, which were then performed and recorded by actors.

Anonymous. “Fiona Tan,” on the Frith Street Gallery website Nd [Online] Cited 29/04/2024

 

[The identity section] has “Affaire Alaux, Faubourg St. Honoré – L’Assassin” (Nov. 2, 1902), a print by Alphonse Bertillon, the inventor of the mug shot, showing the mustached villain full-face and in profile; it is accompanied by over 20 pictures of sites that played a significant role in Bertillon’s life taken in 2012 by Stéphanie Solinas employing a “crime scene” approach.

William Meyers. “Photography’s Past and Present at the Getty Center,” on The Wall Street Journal website May 29, 2024 [Online] Cited 16/06/2024

 

At left, Attributed to Alphonse Bertillon (French, 1853-1914) 'Affaire Alaux, Faubourg St. Honoré – L'Assassin' November 2, 1902; and at right, Stéphanie Solinas (French, b. 1978) 'Untitled (M. Bertillon) – Two Faces' 2012

 

At left, Attributed to Alphonse Bertillon (French, 1853-1914) Affaire Alaux, Faubourg St. Honoré – L’Assassin November 2, 1902; and at right, Stéphanie Solinas (French, b. 1978) Untitled (M. Bertillon) – Two Faces 2012

 

Identity

As is still the case today, the most popular subjects for the camera in the nineteenth century were people. Early commercial portrait photographers set up studios and established standards for posing and props, serving clients who eagerly shared these prized images with family and friends. Other portraits of the time, however, such as the mug shot and studies of female “hysterics,” reinforced questionable forms of objectification. Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Myra Greene respond to the complex history of photographic portraiture. Fiona Tan, Laura Larson, and Stéphanie Solinas investigate the nineteenth century pseudosciences that relied on the perceived accuracy of the new medium.

 

Attributed to Alphonse Bertillon (French, 1853-1914) 'Affaire Alaux, Faubourg St. Honoré – L'Assassin' November 2, 1902

 

Attributed to Alphonse Bertillon (French, 1853-1914)
Affaire Alaux, Faubourg St. Honoré – L’Assassin
November 2, 1902
Gelatin silver print
Image: 7.9 x 12.7cm (3 1/8 x 5 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

The mugshot of Henri-Léon Scheffer, the man who murdered Joseph Reibel.

 

CAUGHT BY A FINGER PRINT

A unique piece of detective work has been accomplished in Paris by a retiring scientist. A mysterious murder had been committed. The detectives arrested one wrong man dis charged him, and were preparing .to arrest another when to their chief came the quiet scientist, saying,

“The assassin’s name is Henri Léon Scheffor. Here is his photograph, his description and past record.” M. Cochefert, chief of the police hesitated. “My men know nothing of this person.” he said. “How shall we accuse him ?”

“Arrest him,” insisted the other, “and should he prove to innocent I will pay him 1,000 francs as an indemnity.”

“But what basis have you for your certainty of his guilt ?” asked M. Cochefert.

“Some finger prints he left on a piece of broken glass,” replied the man of science.

It was not necessary to pay the indemnity. He who was thus strangely accused was arrested and confessed his crime. The quiet man of science was M. Alphonse Bertillon, already celebrated as the founder and present chief of tho anthropometric service of tho Paris prefecture of police. Alphonse Bertillon has the gentle, weary smile of the over-worked and nervous student. He speaks mildly, moves softly, like one on his guard against strain and haste, until now and again, his thoughtful face will light up with enthusiasm as he lets himself go. Then his conversation becomes rapid and eloquent ; he runs through books and documents with ardour, pulls down boxes from high shelves, spreads out charts, explains them, performs experiments to illustrate his statements and darts back by a short cut to tho point where he had left off; tho whole man is transformed. Thus we heard the tale of the Accusing Finger Prints.

“A man named Joseph Reibel, porter to tho dentist Allaux, in his apartment and offices in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, was found choked to death and clumsily tied, lying in his master’s office,” began M. Bertillon. “The place had been looted hastily, closets and drawers being open and their contents tossed about. In particular a handsome cabinet holding a collection of coins was found with its glass door broken and its gold coins absent. There were- practically no clues to the identity of the assassin, the janitress at the street door, having a confused memory as to visitors, which set the detectives on more than one wrong scent. They arrested one man and the papers published his portrait. Then the newspapers at least began to suspect the innocent dentist himself.

“They had taken a flashlight photograph of the office,” continued M. Bertillon. “Looking at that photograph one day, I noticed two glittering little white marks on the edge of the broken glass of the coin cabinet. I asked my self what they could be. They might be defects in the printing ; but, on the other hand their situation suggested that they might be finger prints – and finger-prints are very much in my line ! The thought wore upon me until at last I jumped into a cab and drove to tho place. Examining the edge of the glass I found tho marks to be really finger-marks, and in spite of the thousand chances still in good condition.

“Being composed of tiny quantities of grease and dirt they made the glass slightly opaque, so that they came out bright by contrast in the photograph. Except when looked at in a favourable light they were practically invisible to the naked eye. There were marks of a right-hand thumb in one place and of the same thumb and four fingers in another. I had the two pieces of glass cut out with a diamond. I gave one to a policeman, instructing him to hold it just so, and saw him start off to my office with it in a cab. Then I gave tho other piece to a second policeman, with the same instructions, and started him off in a second cab, so that if an accident should happen to one of the pieces the other might be spared.

“In the workrooms of the anthropometric service I had the finger-marks immediately photographed. At first I admit I did not attach overmuch importance to them. They might be the prints of one of the detectives, or of the dentist Allaux – naturally solicitous of his broken cabinet – or even the finger-prints of M. Cochefert ! One by one I took their finger-prints for comparison. One by one I found that they did not at all correspond with those on the glass. This started me in earnest,” admitted M. Bertillon. “I began to ask myself, if among the thousands of criminals, swindlers and violent and suspicious characters photo-graphed, measured, and, finger-printed yearly by the anthropometric service the author of these finger-prints might not, at some time or other, himself have passed.” Here M. Bertillon called our attention to the thumb mark (“pouce”) of Scheffer, the assassin, Just below his full-face and profile photographs. Though small it was very distinct.

“Look at the central point of that thumb-print,” he exclaimed. “Look where the innermost loop moves up and over a single diagonal. Now jumping two loops from that interior diagonal, towards tho direct left you see a plain little fork in tho third loop. It is the exact reproduction of just such another in the thumb-mark on the broken glass ! Tho next thing was to arrest Scheffer though it took a little time to find him. Here, again, the information obtainable from his ‘fiche’ in the anthropometric service rendered service. It was seen that he had been a native of Aubervilliers (the Paris suburb and had worked in the government match factory. When arrested he confessed, at the same time trying to make out a case of extenuating circumstances. According to his story, Reibel planned that they should simulate a burglary of his master’s premises. They quarrelled over the division of the spoils and Scheffer says he thought he had merely choked his friend into un-consciousness and left him tied – according to original agreement. And all discovered through an accidental finger-print which the assassin had left as an index to the crime. “Science Siftings.”

Anonymous. “Caught by a Finger Print,” in the Balmain Observer and Western Suburbs Advertiser (NSW: 1884-1907), Sat 4 Mar 1905, Page 2 on the Trove website [Online] Cited 29/04/2024

__________________________________________

Time

 

Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820-1884) 'An Effect of Sunlight – Ocean No. 23' 1857-1858

 

Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820-1884)
An Effect of Sunlight – Ocean No. 23
1857-1858
Albumen silver print from glass negatives
12 5/8 x 16 7/16 in.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

Lisa Oppenheim (American, b. 1975) 'An Effect of Sunlight – Ocean No. 23 (1857/2019)' 2019

 

Lisa Oppenheim (American, b. 1975)
An Effect of Sunlight – Ocean No. 23 (1857/2019)
2019
Gelatin silver print, exposed to sunlight and toned with silver
Framed [Outer Dim]: 35.6 x 47.7 x 3.7cm (14 x 18 3/4 x 1 7/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Lisa Oppenheim

 

Time

Photography and time have been inextricably linked ever since early inventors such as William Henry Fox Talbot struggled to permanently fix a fleeting moment on a sheet of paper. The development of the camera coincided with new discoveries about how we perceive an instant in time or an object in motion, and people praised photography for its ability to “stop time” and record what the unaided eye could not see. Lisa Oppenheim and Liz Deschenes respond to nineteenth century photographers’ technical innovations and the ways in which the medium affects our perception of time. Phil Chang and Hiroshi Sugimoto address the fate of photographs across minutes or even centuries.

 

At left, Étienne-Jules Marey (French, 1830-1904) and Michel Berthaud (French, active 1860s-1880s) 'Walking/Running' (La Marche/La Course Rapide) about 1890, published 1893; and at right, Liz Deschenes (American, b. 1966) 'FPS (120)' 2018-2021

 

At left, Étienne-Jules Marey (French, 1830-1904) and Michel Berthaud (French, active 1860s-1880s) Walking/Running (La Marche/La Course Rapide) about 1890, published 1893; and at right, Liz Deschenes (American, b. 1966) FPS (120) 2018-2021

 

Étienne-Jules Marey (French, 1830-1904) and Michel Berthaud (French, active 1860s-1880s) 'Walking/Running' (La Marche/La Course Rapide) about 1890, published 1893

 

Étienne-Jules Marey (French, 1830-1904) and Michel Berthaud (French, active 1860s-1880s)
Walking/Running (La Marche/La Course Rapide)
About 1890, published 1893
Collotype
Image: 11.3 x 17.6cm (4 7/16 x 6 15/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

__________________________________________

Spirit

 

At left, William H. Mumler (American, 1832-1884) 'Mrs. Swan' 1869-1878; and at right, Khadija Saye (Gambian-British, b. 1992) 'Nak Bejjen' [Cow's Horn] 2017-2018

 

At left, William H. Mumler (American, 1832-1884) Mrs. Swan 1869-1878; and at right, Khadija Saye (Gambian-British, b. 1992) Nak Bejjen [Cow’s Horn] 2017-2018

 

Spirit

The genre of spirit photography – which used photographic tricks to insert ghostly figures among the living – emerged during the nineteenth century from the Victorian obsession with death, séances, and mediums in Europe and North America and from the losses of the Civil War in the United States. Photographers exploited the ability to manipulate photographic images, employing multiple exposures and staged photography to create otherworldly scenes or to summon loved ones back from the dead. Khadija Saye and Lieko Shiga respond to the possibilities that spirit photography offers in rendering the unseen.

 

William H. Mumler (American, 1832-1884) 'Mrs. Swan' 1869-1878

 

William H. Mumler (American, 1832-1884)
Mrs. Swan
1869-1878
Albumen silver print
Image: 8.9 x 5.7cm (3 1/2 x 2 1/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Public domain

 

Khadija Saye (Gambian-British, b. 1992) 'Nak Bejjen' [Cow's Horn] 2017-2018

 

Khadija Saye (Gambian-British, b. 1992)
Nak Bejjen [Cow’s Horn]
2017-2018
From the series in this space we breathe
Silkscreen print
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council
© Estate of Khadija Saye

 

At left, Unknown maker (American) '[Seated Woman with "Spirit" of a Young Man]' about 1865-1875; and at right, Lieko Shiga (Japanese, b. 1980) 'Talking with Me' 2005 From the series 'Lilly'

 

At left, Unknown maker (American) [Seated Woman with “Spirit” of a Young Man] about 1865-1875; and at right, Lieko Shiga (Japanese, b. 1980) Talking with Me 2005 From the series Lilly

 

Unknown maker (American) '[Seated Woman with "Spirit" of a Young Man]' about 1865-1875

 

Unknown maker (American)
[Seated Woman with “Spirit” of a Young Man]
About 1865-1875
Tintype
Image: 8.7 x 6.4cm (3 7/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

Lieko Shiga (Japanese, b. 1980) 'Talking with Me' 2005

 

Lieko Shiga (Japanese, b. 1980)
Talking with Me
2005
From the series Lilly

 

‘Lilly’ is a photographic essay that was initiated in 2005 when Lieko Shiga was living in London. During that period she produced a series of images of her neighbours that lived alongside her in a block of East London council flats, drawing techniques and inspiration from paranormal photographs that were popular in the early days of photography. Haunting, mysterious, playful and captured in an array of muted colours, the photographs [are] grouped around different subjects…

Publisher’s Description

__________________________________________

Landscape

 

At left, Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869) 'Plateau of Sebastopol II' 1855; and at right, An-My Lê (Vietnamese American, b. 1960) 'Security and Stabilization Operations, Iraqi Police' 2003-2004

 

At left, Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869) Plateau of Sebastopol II 1855; and at right, An-My Lê (Vietnamese American, b. 1960) Security and Stabilization Operations, Iraqi Police 2003-2004

 

Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869) 'Plateau of Sebastopol II' 1855

 

Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Plateau of Sebastopol II
1855
Albumen silver print
Image: 22.2 x 34.4cm (8 3/4 x 13 9/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Public domain

 

An-My Lê (Vietnamese-American, b. 1960) 'Security and Stabilization Operations, Iraqi Police' 2003-2004

 

An-My Lê (Vietnamese American, b. 1960)
Security and Stabilization Operations, Iraqi Police
2003-2004
From the series 29 Palms
Gelatin silver print
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery
© An-My Lê

 

Landscape

Nineteenth-century photographers went to great lengths to make images of remote landscapes, which required traveling with large format cameras, glass plates, and chemicals. Ideological forces drove many of these journeys, with the ultimate goal of imperial expansion through industrial development and war. Government sponsored surveys and expeditionary programs employed the camera to justify the expansion and to record the resulting military conflicts. Mark Ruwedel, Michelle Stuart, and An-My Lê re-envision some of these same historical landscapes and offer up new ones that bring the past closer to our present.

 

At left, Timothy O'Sullivan (American, about 1840-1882) 'Desert Sand Hills Near Sink of Carson, Nevada' 1867; and at right, Michelle Stuart (American, b. 1933) 'Timeless Land' 2021

 

At left, Timothy O’Sullivan (American, about 1840-1882) Desert Sand Hills Near Sink of Carson, Nevada 1867; and at right, Michelle Stuart (American, b. 1933) Timeless Land 2021

 

Timothy O'Sullivan (American, about 1840-1882) 'Desert Sand Hills Near Sink of Carson, Nevada' 1867

 

Timothy O’Sullivan (American, about 1840-1882)
Desert Sand Hills Near Sink of Carson, Nevada
1867
Albumen silver print
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Public domain

 

Timothy O’Sullivan’s darkroom wagon, pulled by four mules, entered the frame at the right side of the photograph, reached the center of the image, and abruptly U-turned, heading back out of the frame. Footprints leading from the wagon toward the camera reveal the photographer’s path. Made at the Carson Sink in Nevada, this image of shifting sand dunes reveals the patterns of tracks recently reconfigured by the wind. The wagon’s striking presence in this otherwise barren scene dramatises the pioneering experience of exploration and discovery in the wide, uncharted landscapes of the American West.

O’Sullivan’s photographs from the 1867 Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel expedition were intended to provide information for the purpose of expanding railroads and industry, yet they demonstrate his eye for poetic beauty.

Text from the J. Paul Getty Museum website

 

Michelle Stuart (American, b. 1933) 'Timeless Land' 2021

 

Michelle Stuart (American, b. 1933)
Timeless Land
2021
Ambrotypes
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council
© Michelle Stuart

 

A.J. Russell (American, 1830-1902) 'Embankment No. 3 West of Granite Cannon [Wyoming]' April 1868

 

A.J. Russell (American, 1830-1902)
Embankment No. 3 West of Granite Cannon [Wyoming]
April 1868
Albumen silver print
Image: 21.9 x 29.4 cm (8 5/8 x 11 9/16 in.)
Mount: 34.1 x 43.1 cm (13 7/16 x 16 15/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

Mark Ruwedel (American/Canadian, b. 1954) 'Union Pacific #67 (after A.J. Russell)' 1996

 

Mark Ruwedel (American/Canadian, b. 1954)
Union Pacific #67 (after A.J. Russell)
1996
Gelatin silver print
Image: 18.9 x 23.9cm (7 7/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Mark Ruwedel

 

Mark Ruwedel’s statement in a wall text notes that “The legacy of nineteenth-century expeditionary photography was most important to me when working on my Westward series.” He cites Timothy O’Sullivan, Alexander Gardner and A.J. Russell. The Landscape section has a print by A.J. Russell, “Embankment No. 3 West of Granite Cannon. [Wyoming]” (April 1868), and seven pictures by Mr. Ruwedel: “Union Pacific #39 (After A.J. Russell)” and “Union Pacific #67 (After A.J. Russell)” (1994 and 1996, respectively) and five others with no specific acknowledgments but clearly influenced by his 19th-century mentors.

William Meyers. “Photography’s Past and Present at the Getty Center,” on The Wall Street Journal website May 29, 2024 [Online] Cited 16/06/2024

 

At left, Carleton Watkins (American, 1829-1916) 'Cathedral Spires – Yo Semite' 1861; and at right, Ken Gonzales-Day (American, b. 1964) 'At daylight the miserable man was carried to an oak…' Negative 2002; print 2021

 

At left, Carleton Watkins (American, 1829-1916) Cathedral Spires – Yo Semite 1861; and at right, Ken Gonzales-Day (American, b. 1964) At daylight the miserable man was carried to an oak… Negative 2002; print 2021

 

Carleton Watkins (American, 1829-1916) 'Cathedral Spires – Yo Semite' 1861

 

Carleton Watkins (American, 1829-1916)
Cathedral Spires – Yo Semite
1861
Albumen silver print
Image (Dome-Topped): 52.2 x 40.3cm (20 9/16 x 15 7/8 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

 

When Carleton Watkins photographed the remote Yosemite wilderness, America was not yet a century old. Conscious of their country’s lack of a national cultural identity, Americans adopted particularly dramatic geologic formations such as Cathedral Spires as their version of ancient ruins and soaring Gothic churches. The great pine tree in the foreground here became another form of this uniquely American history. Watkins’s images helped define America’s preference for landscape views depicting rugged wilderness and celebrating spectacular landforms on the grandest of scales.

 

Ken Gonzales-Day (American, b. 1964) 'At daylight the miserable man was carried to an oak…' Negative 2002; print 2021

 

Ken Gonzales-Day (American, b. 1964)
At daylight the miserable man was carried to an oak…
Negative 2002; print 2021
From the series Searching for California’s Hang Trees
Pigment print
Image: 92.7 × 117.5cm (36 1/2 × 46 1/4 in.)
© Ken Gonzales-Day

This print: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment

 

Through meticulous research, Gonzales-Day documented approximately 350 lynching incidents that occurred in California between 1850 and 1935, most of which involved victims of Mexican descent. To create the series Searching for California Hang Trees, the artist visited many of these sites and captured the likeness of trees that may have borne witness to these events. Gonzales-Day’s landscapes unearth traces of this little-known history.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013

__________________________________________

Circulation

 

Charles M. Bell (American, 1848-1893) 'Manulitó, Chief of the Navajos' 1874

 

Charles M. Bell (American, 1848-1893)
Manulitó, Chief of the Navajos
1874
Albumen silver print
Image (Arched): 18.4 x 14.9cm (7 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Public domain

 

Wendy Red Star (American/Apsáalooke, b. 1981) 'Peelatchiwaaxpáash / Medicine Crow (Raven)' 2014

 

Wendy Red Star (American/Apsáalooke, b. 1981)
Peelatchiwaaxpáash / Medicine Crow (Raven)
2014
From the series Crow Peace Delegation
Inkjet print
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Museum purchase with funds provided by Jennifer McCracken New and Jason G. New
© Wendy Red Star
Image courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art

 

Artist-manipulated digitally reproduced photograph by C.M. (Charles Milton) Bell, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, 24 x 16 9/20 inches

 

Circulation

By the middle of the nineteenth century, thousands of photographs were in circulation worldwide, the result of photographers’ ability to reproduce the same image multiple times. Pictures of historical events, tourist destinations, and anthropological expeditions made the world seem more accessible, but with time and distance, they became disconnected from their original contexts. Many eventually ended up in archives (including at Getty). Early photographs appear next to projects that make these historical absences present. Wendy Red Star, Stephanie Syjuco, Ken Gonzales-Day, and Andrea Chung recover what has been lost, calling out the residual effects of the nineteenth-century photograph on our present knowledge of global cultures and histories.

Text from the J. Paul Getty Museum

 

At left, Anna Atkins (British, 1799-1871) possibly with Anne Dixon (British, 1799-1877) 'Ceylon/Fern' about 1854; and at right, Andrea Chung (American, b. 1978) 'Untitled' 2016

 

At left, Anna Atkins (British, 1799-1871) possibly with Anne Dixon (British, 1799-1877) Ceylon/Fern about 1854; and at right, Andrea Chung (American, b. 1978) Untitled 2016

 

Anna Atkins (British, 1799-1871) possibly with Anne Dixon (British, 1799-1877) 'Ceylon/Fern' about 1854

 

Anna Atkins (British, 1799-1871) possibly with Anne Dixon (British, 1799-1877)
Ceylon/Fern
About 1854
Cyanotype
Image: 34.8 x 24.7cm (13 11/16 x 9 3/4 in.)
Sheet: 48.3 x 37.5cm (19 x 14 3/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Public domain

 

Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants

After completing the highly ambitious, decade-long project Photographs of Blue Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in the summer of 1853, Anna Atkins turned to new botanical subjects. She would eventually produce several unique presentation albums with cyanotypes of ferns and flowering plants. Atkins most likely collaborated on these albums with her dear friend, Anne Dixon. Dixon came to Halstead Place for an extended stay in the summer of 1852 to comfort Atkins who was deeply shaken by the death of her father and frequent scientific partner John George Children earlier that year. Photo historian Larry Schaaf suggests that it was during this stay or perhaps one the next summer that Dixon began assisting Atkins and creating her own cyanotypes. Thus, it becomes difficult to know whether surviving works from this time period were created by Atkins, Dixon, or both.1

These seven pieces in the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection (figs. 1-7) were extracted from an 1854 presentation album Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Flowering Plants given by Anna Atkins to Anne Dixon in 1854. The album remained intact until sometime around 1981, when it was broken up after being sold at auction.

Atkins and Dixon shared a deep interest in botany, a science that was considered well suited to women since it could be studied locally, even in one’s own garden. Serious “lady botanists” could join the Botanical Society in London, one of the first scientific organisations to admit women. Atkins joined in 1839. The two friends’ interest in botany is documented in a letter of 1851 from Children to Sir William Hooker in which he discussed the two women’s longtime plant collecting. Later, in a letter that Atkins wrote to Hooker in 1864, she extended an offer from Dixon to send him samples of any of the plants from her own collection.2

Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs
2019
© J. Paul Getty Trust
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

1/ Larry Schaaf, Sun Gardens: Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins (New York: The New York Public Library, 2018), 77

2/ Ibid, 80

 

Andrea Chung (American, b. 1978) 'Untitled' 2016

 

Andrea Chung (American, b. 1978)
Untitled
2016
From the series Anthropocene
Cyanotypes
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Andrea Chung

 

Anna Atkins was a 19th-century botanist who documented plant specimens to make the world’s first photo book.

Today, artist Andrea Chung makes images of lionfish. Invasive to the Caribbean, they stand as a metaphor for the impact of colonisation in the region.

Text and photograph from the Getty Museum X web page

 

 

The J. Paul Getty Museum
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, California 90049

Opening hours:
Daily 10am – 5pm

The J. Paul Getty Museum website

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Review: ‘Julie Millowick: Surrounding’ at the Castlemaine Art Museum

“On every wall of the gallery there is an intimate story, told through remarkable photographs of the Australian bush…” Dr Marcus Bunyan

Exhibition dates: 15th February – 16th June, 2024

Curator: Jenny Long

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation view of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Down with Earth

This is a magnificent exhibition by Australian photographer Julie Millowick (b. 1948) which documents “the environmental legacy of gold mining around her home near Fryerstown in Central Victoria, capturing the beauty of this landscape in tumult and recovery.” (Wall text)

What I admire about the work in the exhibition (other than photographs that evidence the persistence of an inquiry into one subject, the result of 34 years of visual and intellectual exploration), is the way that the photographs envelop you in the gallery space. It’s as if the accumulation of images over decades creates a nurturing story which comforts you in the gallery space: that the landscape so desecrated will heal itself, will spring forth anew. The sustained investigation into the landscape around Fryerstown captured my soul.

The exhibition is beautifully constructed, rendered, seen, so very quiet yet so powerful. On every wall of the gallery there is an intimate story, told through remarkable photographs of the Australian bush that combine light and dark, near and far, low and high perspective (the raising and lowering of the horizon line) and the feeling of claustrophobia and expansiveness within the same environment: photographs of mullock heaps and mine sites with open sky and residual left-over soil or rock from the shaft excavation process. Shadows of trees obscure abandoned mine shafts which litter the landscape, traps for the unwary who go wandering, or is that wondering, through the bush. And through Millowick’s lens, this landscape is all about the wonder of the landscape and its rejuvenative potential.

In this unsettling place which continually transforms through drought and rain, human mining, erosion and regeneration we can observe in Millowick’s photographs the strength and transformative qualities of nature. It may seem strange (and probably is) but I argue that the Australian bush presented here is a heterotopic space (Foucault), a landscape outside the normality of the everyday (although any landscape with human intervention is not “natural” but always a constructed space), one that is somehow “other”: disturbing, intense, contradictory and transforming, a landscape which mirrors the outside world yet upsets that representation due to its un/settling, its mining and ecological past – creating a space which changes from day to day, month to month – growing, contracting, evidencing human interaction and touch, but then outgrowing human interference.

The spaces that the artist envisions in her beautiful micro / macro, order / chaos photographs picture something unusual: the imaginative wish for of a utopian world that could never exist in the first place and a dystopian, illusionary world in the process of healing itself (possibly), the very definition of a heterotopic space. As the characters in Fallout Season 1 observe, “Time is the apex predator” … and through time, nature will hopefully outlive all human beings to again become something belonging solely to the Earth, to again become something “natural” (existing in or derived from nature; not made or caused by humankind).

Millowick’s photographs also picture something else: photography as an exposition of the self. As the artist Ans Westra observes, photography should not be “solely controlled by the brain. Your personality, subconscious, flows through […] you have to allow it to come through […] for the outcome to be relevant.”1 Ultimately, she said, photography was “always an exposition of self.” Such is the energy with the photographs of this artist, also.

Through wonder, respect and the grounding of spirit in Earth, Millowick has sustained a bond and an understanding in her fascination with this subject, a sensitivity to subject nurtured over so many years which “invites viewers to appreciate them [the photographs] as a poetic connection to, and love for, the landscape” side by side with a conceptual thinking or intellectualisation about the land. In their containment of energy, in their penetrating into life and its things, these photographs contribute something to our life and history on this planet.

Robert Frank said, “It is important to see what is invisible to others.”

Minor White, in one of his Three canons said,

“Be still with yourself,

Until the object of your attention,

Affirms your presence”



Millowick has achieved both aims admirably. In some of the most insightful and poignant photographs of the Australian landscape I have ever seen, the artist has revealed not just aspects of the earth (ground) which are undergoing transformation but aspects of herself as she has journeyed through life, remaining true to her path as an artist, remaining true to documenting her journey with the land, remaining true to a legacy towards the planet, down with Earth.

I was very moved by these photographs.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

 

1/ Ans Westra quoted in Paul Moon. “An outsider on the inside: how Ans Westra created New Zealand’s ‘national photo album’,” on the Conversation website May 8, 2024 [Online] Cited 11/05/2024


All installation photographs by Marcus Bunyan. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. All photographs © Marcus Bunyan and Julie Millowick

 

 

“The artist does not turn time into money, the artist turns time into energy, time into intensity, time into vision. The exchange that art offers is an exchange in kind; energy for energy, intensity for intensity, vision for vision… Can we afford to live imaginatively, contemplatively?”


Jeanette Winterson. Art Objects. London: Vintage, 1996, p. 139.

 

 

Wall text from the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Wall text from the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Gallery One

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation view of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation view of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation view of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum showing at left, Perseverance Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown (2020); at top right, Mosquito Mine depleted mullock heap, Fryerstown (2020); and at bottom right, Duke of Cornwall Mine mulch heap, Fryerstown (2020)
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Mullock and mine sites

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Perseverance Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown' 2020 from the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum, February - June, 2024

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Perseverance Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Duke of Cornwall Mine mulch heap, Fryerstown' 2020

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Duke of Cornwall Mine mulch heap, Fryerstown
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation view of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum showing from left to right, top to bottom, Ferrons Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown (2007); Ferrons Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown (2007); Exocarps cupressiformis (cherry ballart) in the foreground, Ferrons mullock heap in the background (2018); Mullock from New Era Mine, Fryerstown (2022); Ferrons Mine mullock heap with one of several surrounding shafts, Fryerstown (2018); Three fragments of goldrush-era glass bottle, Fryerstown (2019); New Era Mine mullock heaps, Fryerstown (2022); Abandoned mine shaft, Fryerstown (2022); Introduced invasive thistles, Fryerstown (2022); New Era Mine mullock heaps, Fryerstown (2022); New Era Mine mullock heaps, introduced get mullein in foreground, Fryerstown (2022); New Era Mine mullock heaps, introduced get mullein in foreground, Fryerstown (2022)
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Ferrons Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown' 2007 from the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum, February - June, 2024

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ferrons Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Ferrons Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown' 2007

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ferrons Mine mullock heap, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Exocarps cupressiformis (cherry ballart) in the foreground, Ferrons mullock heap in the background' 2018

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Exocarps cupressiformis (cherry ballart) in the foreground, Ferrons mullock heap in the background
2018
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Because of the conifer-like foliage, European settlers referred to Exocarps cupressiformis (cherry ballart) as a ‘bush Christmas tree’. First Nations people used the wood for spear throwers and Europeans used it for gunstocks.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Ferrons Mine mullock heap with one of several surrounding shafts, Fryerstown' 2018

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ferrons Mine mullock heap with one of several surrounding shafts, Fryerstown
2018
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'New Era Mine mullock heaps, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
New Era Mine mullock heaps, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Originally much larger, these mullock heaps have been substantially depleted by both private individuals and the former shire, who used the mullock for roadworks. New Era Mine, at a depth of 1100 feet (335.3 metres), was the deepest shaft in the local area.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Abandoned mine shaft, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Abandoned mine shaft, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Abandoned mine shafts occur throughout the Central Victorian area. Discarded mine waste appears in the background of the photograph

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Introduced invasive thistles, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Introduced invasive thistles, Fryerstown
2022
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'New Era Mine mullock heaps, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
New Era Mine mullock heaps, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation views of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum showing from left to right, top to bottom, Trees defoliated by the caterpillar (larval) stage of Cup Moth, Doratifera sp. Fryerstown (2013); Studio photograph of leaves damaged by the caterpillar (larval) stage of Cup Moth, Doratifera sp. Fryerstown (2013); Fallen leaves damaged by the caterpillar (larval) stage of Cup Moth, Doratifera sp. Fryerstown (2013); The quite shocking impact of searching for gold using hydraulic sluicing (early 1900s and 1930s), Golden Gully, Fryerstown (2022); The remains of a deeply sluiced gully, Golden Gully, Fryerstown (2022); Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush) Fryerstown (2023); Forest, evening, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022); Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballarat), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2021); The secret cubby in the New Era Mine tailings sand, surrounded by introduced invasive blackberry, Golden Gully, Fryerstown (2016); Invasive blackberry grows along the track to the New Era Mind tailings, Fryerstown (2010); Gelatin silver paper exposed while lightly buried under introduced invasive blackberry plant, Fryerstown (2019); Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), Fryerstown (2023); Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), growing in the cyanide-contaminated tailings sand from the New Era Mine, Golden Gully, Fryerstown (2021); Acacia implexa (hickory wattle) foliage, Fryerstown (2023)
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park

Damage by Cup Moth

During 2013m large areas if trees in Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park were defoliated by the caterpillar (larval) stage of Cup Moth, Doratifera sp. Fortunately, most trees eventually recovered. Environmentalist, entomologist and Fryerstown resident, John Landy (former Governor of Victoria 2001-2006 and the second many to break the four-minute mile) also shored Julie Millowick’s concern for the forest. John viewed Julie’s photo documentation and offered valuable information.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Trees defoliated by the caterpillar (larval) stage of Cup Moth, Doratifera sp., Fryerstown' 2013

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Trees defoliated by the caterpillar (larval) stage of Cup Moth, Doratifera sp., Fryerstown
2013
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Large areas of forest in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park were affected. Every day Julie Milowick witnessed the decline of the trees as the Cup Moth infestation became more widespread.

 

Tailings sands

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'The quite shocking impact of searching for gold using hydraulic sluicing (early 1900s and 1930s), Golden Gully, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
The quite shocking impact of searching for gold using hydraulic sluicing (early 1900s and 1930s), Golden Gully, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'The remains of a deeply sluiced gully, Golden Gully, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
The remains of a deeply sluiced gully, Golden Gully, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Growing in the foreground and along the top of the cliff is Cassinia sifton (coffee bush)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), Fryerstown' 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), Fryerstown
2023
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Cassinia sifton also called the coffee bush, is a plant associated with regeneration and survival. Referred to as a pioneer plant, it is often the first growth to occur in disturbed, damaged and bare earth.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Forest, evening, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Forest, evening, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballarat), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2021

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballarat), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2021
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

In spring the tree has tiny red berries that provided a valuable food source for Indigenous people.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'The secret cubby in the New Era Mine tailings sand, surrounded by introduced invasive blackberry, Golden Gully, Fryerstown' 2016

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
The secret cubby in the New Era Mine tailings sand, surrounded by introduced invasive blackberry, Golden Gully, Fryerstown
2016
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Gelatin silver paper exposed while lightly buried under introduced invasive blackberry plant, Fryerstown' 2019

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Gelatin silver paper exposed while lightly buried under introduced invasive blackberry plant, Fryerstown
2019
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), Fryerstown' 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), Fryerstown
2023
Digitised wet cyanotype, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag paper, open edition
2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Because Cassinia sifton (coffee bush) is the fist plant to regrow in damaged land, it symbolises renewal.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), growing in the cyanide-contaminated tailings sand from the New Era Mine, Golden Gully, Fryerstown' 2021

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Cassinia sifton (Coffee Bush), growing in the cyanide-contaminated tailings sand from the New Era Mine, Golden Gully, Fryerstown
2021
Dgital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Acacia implexa (hickory wattle) foliage, Fryerstown' 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Acacia implexa (hickory wattle) foliage, Fryerstown
2023
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

The beauty of Central Victoria’s landscape in tumult and recovery.

Julie Millowick is a localist, an artist who is deeply embedded in the place where she lives. Over many years, Millowick has documented the environmental legacy of gold mining around her home near Fryerstown in Central Victoria. This strangely poignant landscape has been turned upside down through violent extraction – but it remains resilient and in the process of recovery.

Surrounding exhibits a curated selection of Millowick’s work including a new series seen for the first time. Millowick’s photographs show us the devastating effects of mining, drought, flood and invasive plants, but also remind us of the interconnectedness that links all parts of this ecosystem including its human occupants. This is a terrain which the artist loves, and which she sees with acute perception. It is a landscape full of complexity, a region with a terrible past, but in its capacity for renewal is also a place that offers a spark of hope for the future.

Julie Millowick

Julie Millowick began her photographic career working in the darkroom of Athol Shmith, John Cato and Peter Barr. After completing her studies at Prahran College of Advanced Education, she worked as a press and public relations photographer, after which the direction of her commercial folio changed and she worked as a corporate industrial photographer. Julie achieved early recognition for her photojournalism when she exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria and Australian Centre for Photography in 1977 in Australian New Work. She has exhibited and published regularly since then, with work held in major photography collections in Australia and internationally. In 1993 she exhibited work in the exhibition Intimate Lives with Sally Mann, Nan Goldin and Jaques Henri Lartigue at the International Fotofeis in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Text from the Castlemaine Art Museum website

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation views of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum showing from left to right, top to bottom, Dog shadow on the edge of an abandoned mine shaft, evening light, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2009); Cassini Sifton (coffee bush) with seeds, Fyerstown (2023); Abandoned mine shaft, horse paddock, Fyerstown (2009); Survivor tree, surrounded by uniform post-goldrush regrowth, horse paddock, Fyerstown (2023); Gelatin silver paper exposed while lightly buried under introduced invasive blackberry plant, Fyerstown (2019); Post-goldrush uniform regrowth trees in mist, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2014); Post-goldrush uniform regrowth trees in mist, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2014); Late evening, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2021); Late evening, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2021); Early morning light, horse paddock with washing line and feed bin, Fryerstown (2009); Tree with hay band, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2009); A beautiful little mare, hose paddock, Fryerstown (2009); A much-loved little mare, horse paddock, Fryerstown (2009); Christian McArdle on top of Ferrons mullock heap, horse paddock, Fryerstown (1989); Christian McArdle with Blue Dog on top of Ferrons mullock heap, Fryerstown (2023)
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Horse Paddock

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Dog shadow on the edge of an abandoned mine shaft, evening light, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2009

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Dog shadow on the edge of an abandoned mine shaft, evening light, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2009
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Abandoned mine shaft, horse paddock, Fyerstown' 2009

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Abandoned mine shaft, horse paddock, Fyerstown
2009
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

A small Cassinia soften (coffee bush) valiantly grows on the edge of an abandoned mine shaft.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Survivor tree, surrounded by uniform post-goldrush regrowth, horse paddock, Fyerstown' 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Survivor tree, surrounded by uniform post-goldrush regrowth, horse paddock, Fyerstown
2023
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Gelatin silver paper exposed while lightly buried under introduced invasive blackberry plant, Fyerstown' 2019

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Gelatin silver paper exposed while lightly buried under introduced invasive blackberry plant, Fyerstown
2019
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Post-goldrush uniform regrowth trees in mist, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2014

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Post-goldrush uniform regrowth trees in mist, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2014
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Post-goldrush uniform regrowth trees in mist, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2014

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Post-goldrush uniform regrowth trees in mist, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2014
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Late evening, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2021

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Late evening, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2021
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation views of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum showing from left to right, top to bottom, Ecological Thinning Trial, first week. Christian McArdle driving his 1967 Ford F100 truck into one of the ‘thinned’ areas, Fryerstown (2007); Ecological Thinning Trial, first week, Fryerstown (2007); Ecological Thinning Trial, three months later, Fryerstown (2007); Ecological Thinning Trial, two years later, Fryerstown (2009); Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park seven weeks after a DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) planned burn, Fryerstown (2020); Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park thirteen weeks after a DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) planned burn, Fryerstown (2020); Evening light, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022); Quietly beautiful landscape in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2013); Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart) with a kangaroo track running across the background and the abandoned Fyers Extension Water Race (channel) on the right-hand side, Fryerstown (2022); Ferrons Mine mullock heap in distant background of what is referred to as ‘worked over land’, Fryerstown (2020); Beautiful, rugged and challenging terrain of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2014); Post-goldrush uniform regrowth of the forest is clearly evident in this image from (2014); Three Wildflowers, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022); Wattle from the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022); Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart), Fryerstown (2022); Acacia pycnantha (golden wattle), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022); Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022); Exploring the multi-layered complexity of the forest using the technique of double exposure, Fryerstown (2008)
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park

Ecological thinning

In April 2007 an Ecological Thinning Trial commenced in sections of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park. The trial has a duration of fifty years and aims to transform selected areas of the box ironbark forest from uniform post-goldrush regrowth to an environment supporting widely-spaced trees of different heights, age and canopy.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Ecological Thinning Trial, first week. Christian McArdle driving his 1967 Ford F100 truck into one of the 'thinned' areas, Fryerstown' 2007

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ecological Thinning Trial, first week. Christian McArdle driving his 1967 Ford F100 truck into one of the ‘thinned’ areas, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Ecological Thinning Trial, Fryerstown' 2007-2009

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ecological Thinning Trial, first week, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

The uniform post-goldrush regrowth trees have been ‘thinned’, leaving a selected few to grow larger and provide a protective canopy and more diverse habitat.

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ecological Thinning Trial, three months later, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

‘Thinned’ trees in foreground remain on the ground while in the background (centre of image) others are stacked ready for removal. Uniform regrowth after the gold mining deforestation is evident in trees that remain standing. The 50-year trial hopes to return the forest of the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park to a landscape of various sized trees, canopy and habitat.

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ecological Thinning Trial, two years later, Fryerstown
2009
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

The flowering local Hakea decrees (hake or ‘bushy needlewood’) is growing through stacked wood. Uniform regrowth trees can be seen in the background.

Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park seven weeks after a DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) planned burn, Fryerstown' 2020

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park seven weeks after a DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) planned burn, Fryerstown
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park thirteen weeks after a DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) planned burn, Fryerstown' 2020

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park thirteen weeks after a DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) planned burn, Fryerstown
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Evening light, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Evening light, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

The conifer-like foliage of Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart) in the foreground demonstrates why European settlers referred to it as a ‘bush Christmas tree’.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Quietly beautiful landscape in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2013

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Quietly beautiful landscape in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2013
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948). 'Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballast) with a kangaroo track running across the background and the abandoned Fyers Extension Water Race (channel) on the right-hand side, Fryerstown' (2022) and 'Ferrons Mine mullock heap in distant background of what is referred to as 'worked over land', Fryerstown' (2023)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballast) with a kangaroo track running across the background and the abandoned Fyers Extension Water Race (channel) on the right-hand side, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Ferrons Mine mullock heap in distant background of what is referred to as ‘worked over land’, Fryerstown
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Wattle from the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Wattle from the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2022
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart), Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart), Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

Julie Millowick specifically photographed Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart or ‘bush Christmas tree’) for several years. This is one of her favourite images.

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Acacia pycnantha (golden wattle), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2022
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Exocarpos cupressiformis (cherry ballart), Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (2022)
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Exploring the multi-layered complexity of the forest using the technique of double exposure, Fryerstown' 2008

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Exploring the multi-layered complexity of the forest using the technique of double exposure, Fryerstown
2008
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation view of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum showing from left to right, top to bottom, Jetty in mist, Fryerstown (2004); Early morning, reflected pink cloud, Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown (2001); Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered reeds, Fryerstown (2007); Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered reeds, Fryerstown (2007); Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered jetty, Fryerstown (2005); Coffee bush, Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown (2007); Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown (2008); Crocodile Reservoir, Christian McArdle on the Crocodile Reservoir jetty with the dog called Black, Fryerstown (2008); Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown (2009); Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown (2010); Christian McArdle surveys flooded Golden Gully, Fryerstown (2010); Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown (2004); Crocodile Reservoir. Julie Millowick and her son Christian McArdle, Crocodile Reservoir, during the El Nino year of 2007 from the series Drought, Continuing Drought, Fryerstown (2007)
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Crocodile Reservoir

Crocodile Reservoir was constructed in 1861 and supplied water to the Fryerstown area for both mining and domestic purposes. In 1877, via a series of water races (channels), it became part of the main Coliban channel system. Later, when Fryerstown was connection to McCay Reservoir, it became catchment only.

‘Croc Res’, as it is called by Fryerstown residents, is 650 metres from were Julie Millowick lives and was an integral part of person’s childhood.

The reservoir, like all other water catchments, was severely affected by the Australia-wide Millennium Drought, between 1999 and the spring of 2010. During that time Millowick photographed the impact of the drought across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. She included the 1860’s Crocodile Reservoir, Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, as part of that documentation. The latter photographs, although local, were a microcosm of what was happening across Australia.

As the water level of Crocodile Reservoir fell earth was exposed to daylight for the first time since the 1860s. Immediately Cassinia soften (coffee bush) flourished.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Early morning, reflected pink cloud, Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown' 2001

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Early morning, reflected pink cloud, Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown
2001
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

As the drought progressed and the water level fell, Fryerstown locals were astonished to see a small wooden jetty appear out of the receding water. It was in remarkably good condition and Julie Millowick immediately began to photograph it.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered reeds, Fryerstown' 2007

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered reeds, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

At the Crocodile Gully inlet to the reservoir, the valuable habitat of the once thriving reeds had been lost. The trees indicate the pre-drought water level. Cassinia sifton (coffee bush) encroaches on the left hand side.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered reeds, Fryerstown' 2007

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered reeds, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered jetty, Fryerstown' 2005

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Crocodile Reservoir, ice-covered jetty, Fryerstown
2005
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

The newly-exposed dam wall of Crocodile Reservoir, adjacent to the jetty, was almost blocked by the uncontrolled growth of Cassinia sifton (coffee bush)

 

Minor White (American, 1908-1976) 'Vermont' 1971

 

Minor White (American, 1908–1976)
Vermont (dock in snow)
1971
Gelatin silver print

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Coffee bush, Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown' 2007

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Coffee bush, Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown
2007
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Thriving seed-laden Cassinia sifton (coffee bush) can be seen here encroaching on the northern end of Crocodile Reservoir, where large areas of reeds, no longer partially submerged in water, had died.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown' 2008

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown
2008
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Damaged jetty and exposed infrastructure used for the release of water into the races (channels) is visible. The small amount of water in the reservoir and surrounding wet earth resulted from a violent storm that occurred mid-2007. It did not break the drought, but caused damage across Victoria.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Crocodile Reservoir, Christian McArdle on the Crocodile Reservoir jetty with the dog called Black, Fryerstown' 2008

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Crocodile Reservoir, Christian McArdle on the Crocodile Reservoir jetty with the dog called Black, Fryerstown
2008
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown' 2010

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Crocodile Reservoir, Fryerstown
2010
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

In the spring of 2010 heavy drought-breaking rain fell throughout Victoria. The drought-weakened wall of the reservoir partially collapsed, and water flowed through the cavity into Golden Gully. Standing on the wall above the area of partial collapse looking down.

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'One of the numerous abandoned mine shafts in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2010

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
One of the numerous abandoned mine shafts in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown (installation view)
2010
Inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'One of the numerous abandoned mine shafts in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown' 2010

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
One of the numerous abandoned mine shafts in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Fryerstown
2010
Inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Mine disturbances and uniform regrowth trees can be seen in the background.

 

Gallery Two

 

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

Installation view of the exhibition 'Julie Millowick: Surrounding' at the Castlemaine Art Museum

 

Installation views of the exhibition Julie Millowick: Surrounding at the Castlemaine Art Museum
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 1996 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown (installation view)
1996
Digitised pinhole camera paper negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 1996 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown (installation view)
1996
Digitised pinhole camera paper negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 1996

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown
1996
Digitised pinhole camera paper negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 1996

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, Horse Paddock, Fryerstown
1996
Digitised Pinhole Camera paper negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2010 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown (installation view)
2010
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2010

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2010
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, front verandah, Fryerstown' 2022 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, front verandah, Fryerstown (installation view)
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, front verandah, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, front verandah, Fryerstown
2022
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown. Corrupt card' 2012 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown. Corrupt card (installation view)
2012
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2012 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Washing, horse paddock, Fryerstown (installation view)
2012
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Child's 19th century boot metal heel-band, found on property, Fryerstown' 2023 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Child’s 19th century boot metal heel-band, found on property, Fryerstown (installation view)
2023
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Child's 19th century boot metal heel-band, found on property, Fryerstown' 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Child’s 19th century boot metal heel-band, found on property, Fryerstown
2023
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Tree foliage, patio, Fryerstown' 2022 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Tree foliage, patio, Fryerstown (installation view)
2022
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Tree foliage, patio, Fryerstown' 2022 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Tree foliage, patio, Fryerstown (installation view)
2022
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Tree foliage, patio, Fryerstown' 2022

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Tree foliage, patio, Fryerstown
2022
Digitised gelatin silver lumen, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2001 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown (installation view)
2001
Digitised 6-45 film negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown (installation view)
2001
Digitised 6-45 film negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2001

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2001
Digitised 6-45 film negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown' 2001

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Introduced invasive cactus, horse paddock, Fryerstown
2001
Digitised 6-45 film negative, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Original interior wall of 1862 miner’s cottage with introduced invasive blackberry, Fryerstown' 2023 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Original interior wall of 1862 miner’s cottage with introduced invasive blackberry, Fryerstown (installation view)
2023
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Day 39, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown' 2020 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Day 39, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown (installation view)
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Day 39, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown' 2020

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Day 39, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown
2020
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Day 155 and Day 264, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown' 2021 (installation view)

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Day 155, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown (installation view)
2021
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Day 264, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown (installation view)
2021
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Day 155, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown' 2021

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Day 155, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown
2021
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948) 'Day 264, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown' 2021

 

Julie Millowick (Australian, b. 1948)
Day 264, lockdown, Chinese pistachio tree, Fryerstown
2021
Digital image, inkjet print on 100% cotton rag
open edition 2023

 

 

Castlemaine Art Museum
14 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine

Opening hours
Thursday – Saturday 11am – 4pm
Sunday 12pm – 4pm

Castlemaine Art Museum website

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Photographs: Marcus Bunyan. ‘Dark Light’

“The spirit has left the earth, the body; something is not quite right; ambiguous forces of the (under) world are at play.” MB

from the series Travelling the wonderful loneliness 2019-2024

April 2024

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Two Towers' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Two Towers

 

 

 

This sequence (my favourite in my latest body of work), Dark Light, is one of the four sequences in the series collectively titled Travelling the wonderful loneliness (2019-2024). Traces of order / chaos seen clearly; previsualisation was strong.

My friend and mentor Ian Lobb said:

“It all works brilliantly, and they are all like that – there are subtle things that can’t be traced: i.e. are they the photographer: or are they the camera or are they just inevitable in this world? It is a type of anti-spirituality meets spirituality… and any number of other meeting points.”


My friend Elizabeth Gertsakis said:

“Spatial as well as surface tactile. Fascinated randomness. The human figure appears as a singular frozen device. Post-apocalyptic as well.”


I said:

“The spirit has left the earth, the body; something is not quite right; ambiguous forces of the (under) world are at play.”


Dr Marcus Bunyan

50 images
© Marcus Bunyan 


Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. Other sequences in the series include Material Witness; Tell Me Why; and (How I) Wish You Were Here (all 2019-2024).

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'The Great Wave (Gustave Le Gray)' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
The Great Wave (Gustave Le Gray)

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Soul marker' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Soul marker

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'JCB' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
JCB

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Sacrifice, Bendlerblock, Berlin' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Sacrifice, Bendlerblock, Berlin

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Dark City I' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Dark City I

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Golden Tulip' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Golden Tulip

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Monolith' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Monolith

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Creature' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Creature

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Twenty / One' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Twenty / One

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Tendril' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Tendril

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Tribulation' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Tribulation

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Yellow' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Yellow

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Black Star' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Black Star

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Duct' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Duct

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Wraith' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Wraith

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Benediction' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Benediction

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Memorial, Berlin' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Memorial, Berlin

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Medusa, Yerebatan Sarnici, Istanbul' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Medusa, Yerebatan Sarnici, Istanbul

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Running Man' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Running Man

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Dark City II' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Dark City II

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'In the darkness of forests' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
In the darkness of forests

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Peeling' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Peeling

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Lust' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Lust

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Pierce' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Pierce

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Conductor' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Conductor

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Despair' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Despair

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Below Above' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Below Above

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Parallel' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Parallel

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Enclosure' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Enclosure

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Block' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Block

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Chaos' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Chaos

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Approaching Thunderstorm' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Approaching Thunderstorm

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Entombment' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Entombment

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Untitled' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Dark Light, Pavillon de Marsan, Paris' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Dark Light, Pavillon de Marsan, Paris

 

 

Marcus Bunyan (Australian, b. 1958) 'Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light)' from the sequence 'Dark Light' 2019-2024
Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light)

 

 

Photographs are available from this series for purchase. As a guide, a digital colour 16″ x 20″ print costs $1,000 plus tracked and insured shipping. For more information please see the Store web page.

 

Marcus Bunyan website

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Review: ‘Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst’ at the RMIT Gallery, Melbourne

“The photographs tell a powerful story of Germany before and after the fall of communism whilst instilling in the viewer a wondering, an accumulation and visual nourishment for the senses.” Dr Marcus Bunyan

Exhibition dates: 1st March – 20th April, 2024

Curator: Matthias Flügge

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Dodendorfer Straße' 1998 From the series 'Morgenstraße. Magdeburg 1998-2000' from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst' at the RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, March - April, 2024

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Dodendorfer Straße
1998
Aus der Serie: Morgenstraße. Magdeburg 1998-2000
From the series: Morgenstraße. Magdeburg 1998-2000
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

 

Wondering through history


Wonder noun. a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar.


As enunciated by Jake Wilson in The Age newspaper in a review of the film La Chimera, “ultimately, the problem dramatised here is the same one faced by any modern artist: how do you retain a meaningful link to your predecessors while shaping something new?”1

Further, my mentor and friend Ian Lobb would often challenge me to define what I was adding to the artistic dialogue of photography instead of repeating the language of a previous era, and I would spar with him asking him was it really necessary to constantly reinvent the wheel, was it not enough to see and feel with clarity and humour those precious moments that surround us, and insightfully photograph them. These are the questions that enliven life: is it always necessary to shape something new, or is it enough to be attentive to the moment – of your mind, heart and vision – to create spellbinding photographs that carry your own interpretation of a certain reality.

Such is the case with the stimulating, two-room exhibition of the German photographer Ulrich Wüst at RMIT Gallery, Melbourne.

Wüst’s photography shows great affinity with the work of Bernd and Hiller Becher and the Becher and Dusseldorf Schools of photography which would have been known in East Germany by the time Wüst shot the 1980s series Stadtbilder. 1979-1985 (Cityscapes. 1979-1985) that first brought Wüst to international attention (the border was very permeable to artistic ideas from the West reaching East Germany).2 Indeed, most of Wüst’s oeuvre has direct links to the aesthetic of the Bechers (with their attention to detail and “devotion to the 1920s German tradition of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity”) and photographers such as Thomas Ruff (with their surreal enlargement of scale and “fundamentally sceptical attitude towards photography’s claim to truth and documentation”).

I believe that referencing and riffing off that aesthetic as Wüst does is no bad thing … for it forms the basis for the photographer’s further take on reality. But there are plenty of other forces at play in his photographs. I observe traces of August Sander, Berenice Abbott, Robert Frank, Michael Schmidt and Eugène Atget among others, especially with the latter in the positioning of Wüst’s camera.

As he observes, “When shooting I often find that if I move just fraction away from the more customary perspective a subtle heightening of tension with take place within the image. It’s no accident that I and my camera frequently get suspicious looks when the angle of the lens shifts away from the perspective found in souvenirs and postcards.” (Wall text from the exhibition)

And this is exactly what Atget did, he moved his camera from the “normal” point of view ever so slightly so that there immediately becomes this tension within the image plane coupled to the possibility of a magical revelation of space, an ironic comment on construction, or a grotesque play of opposites. As Wüst says, his vision, his observation, contains “plenty that is comic, grotesque, ironic” which many people do not see.

If we think about the supposedly objective work of the Bechers, which they insisted was all about documenting the object and not about any type of emotion, we fail to consider, as Julia Curl opines, “that this “objectivity” is only surface-level – that the work is deeply personal, even if its apparent uniformity claims otherwise.”3 Personally, I have never bought into the cool objectification of the Becher’s work for the photographers made defined choices as to how they depicted their constructed realities, each iteration of a water tower, gravel plant or cooling tower different from the other (fragments of a whole). This was deeply personal vision of how the world is perceived.

The same can be said of the photographs of Ulrich Wüst. His photographs are entirely personal, fragmentary excavations of history. In Wüst’s works by series, his photographs – surreal, sculptural scenes absent of people, full of elemental beauty – are not just the flawed humanity of our creation / the creation of our flawed humanity … but the creation and imagination of the human mind captured by the eye of the camera. Wüst’s photographs challenge us to look closer at the reality around us not accepting the status quo, the postcard view, not walking the city as if unaware of the vistas around us, feeling the “traces, injuries, missing and empty spaces in the image, so that things begin to speak of themselves…”4

As the art historian Matthias Flügge states, Wüst’s photographs are “images of intellectual-spatial situations,” wholly a creation, an accretion, on existing forms of photography. Not something new, which is ultimately unnecessary, but a growth in “wondering” – not wandering – achieved through the gradual accumulation of additional layers of beauty, feeling, knowledge so that we are informed and fully aware of our (un)familiar surroundings.

The photographs tell a powerful story of Germany before and after the fall of communism whilst instilling in the viewer a wondering, an accumulation and visual nourishment for the senses.

Such is the photography of Ulrich Wüst.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

PS. The only down side to this exhibition is that all the black and white photographs are modern archival ink jet prints. Call me old fashioned but these pigment prints have no real “presence”. It’s like the difference between an LP and a CD, or a movie in Technicolor or 5K. One has “atmosphere”, one has mood and aura and the other just sits there in all its perfection like a dog with a bone waiting for you to go “oooh, ahhh”. There are people that say you can’t tell the difference between the two. Rubbish. Give me gelatin silver prints any day of the week.

 

1/ Jake Wilson. “Lost and Found while digging up the cinematic past,” in The Age newspaper, 11 April 2024, p. 24.

2/”Huyssen reveals the complexity of artistic development on both sides of the Wall and notes that “the borders between East and West became porous during the 1970s as a result of treaties between the GDR and the FRG.” His focus in this regard, however, is on those artists who left the East for the West and made an impact there, such as Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter; he does not acknowledge the extent to which ideas and influences went in both directions. … While it is true that West German artists showed little interest in exhibiting in the East or in the art that was created there, East German artists tended to be well informed about Western artistic developments…” p. 598

April A. Eisman. “East German Art and the Permeability of the Berlin Wall,” in German Studies Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (October 2015), pp. 597-616. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies Association

3/ Julia Curl. “Bernd and Hilla Becher’s Misunderstood Oeuvre,” on the Hyperallergic website November 2, 2022 [Online] Cited 11/04/2024

4/ Jacek Slaski. “Ulrich Wüst – Stadtbilder 1979–1985: Zwischen Kunst und Dokumentation,” on the tipBerlin website 03/02/2022 [Online] Cited 08/04/2024. Translated from the German by Google Translate



Many thankx to the RMIT Gallery and the ifa for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

An exhibition by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V., Stuttgart – in partnership with the Goethe-Institut. This project is an official exhibition of PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography.

 

 

“Most viewers, unfortunately, are so dreadfully serious when they look at the pictures. I have to “hammer it home” incredibly hard before anyone will allow themselves to laugh. In my works there is simply – perhaps a bit hidden – plenty that is comic, grotesque, ironic.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

“I’m sure I do give those power symbols the aesthetic treatment, otherwise it’s unlikely that I would have any desire or energy to photograph them. But it would also be unfair to say that these objects do not hold their own innate aesthetic fascination. All I can do is try to describe how I am torn between spontaneous fascination and rational rejection, aiming to convey that experience and make it understandable. When shooting I often find that if I move just fraction away from the more customary perspective a subtle heightening of tension with take place within the image. It’s no accident that I and my camera frequently get suspicious looks when the angle of the lens shifts away from the perspective found in souvenirs and postcards. People are very attuned to that sort of shift.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Flatland. Schönhof', 2013 (centre), 'The Pomp of Power', 1983-1990 (left) and 'Red October', 2018 (right) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Flatland. Schönhof, 2013 (centre), The Pomp of Power, 1983-1990 (left) and Red October, 2018 (right) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

 

Ulrich Wüst’s photographic work captures his wanderings through German history, portraying the social and urban transformations from the GDR and its disintegration, through the German reunification to the present day. Wüst revives the German history in a new static way, where the past and present clash in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.

Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst shows a selection of nine suites taken between 1978 and 2019. Ulrich Wüst’s photographic work can be contemplated from different perspectives. While the observations captured here are rooted in Germany’s division and its mending, at the same time they always relate to universal phenomena of social change and its material manifestations. The seemingly terse images, extremely precise in their composition, are the fruits of lengthy visual wanderings through present sites of recent history.

Ulrich Wüst’s photographic œuvre, which explores Eastern Germany in the broader sense, is not confined to the sunken GDR. It might be described as a pictorial archaeology of our present day. These pictures reveal the finds from his “excavations” and are at the same time tools of their conservation. Wüst has an infallible feel for the graphic quality of everyday situations, objects and materials, but also for the deeper layers of significance associated with found images. Examples are the enlarged details from East German press products that demonstrate a manipulative use of photography.

Ulrich Wüst’s photographic work can be contemplated from different perspectives. While the observations captured here are essentially rooted in Germany’s division and its mending, at the same time they always relate to universal phenomena of social change and its material manifestations. The seemingly terse images, extremely precise in their composition, are the fruits of lengthy visual wanderings through present sites of recent history.

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Flatland. Schönhof', 2013, from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Flatland. Schönhof, 2013, from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Flatland. Schönhof' 2013 from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst' at the RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, March - April, 2024

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Flatland. Schönhof
From the series: Flatland. Schönhof
2013
Colour photograph, archival pigment print
57 x 38cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Flatland. Schönhof' 2013 (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Flatland. Schönhof' 2013 (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Flatland. Schönhof
From the series: Flatland. Schönhof (installation views)
2013
Colour photograph, archival pigment print
57 x 38cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

“These photographs of newspapers and magazines were taken in the countryside, things that I found within a very small radius. Previously I had always done that urban stuff but then I would go looking for contrasts, because after a while your eye becomes tired.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Cityscapes, 1979-1985' (left) and 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' (right) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Cityscapes 1979-1985 (left) and Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege 1991-1992 (right) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst’s photos are “images of mental-spatial situations”

In every city there are places that have been photographed thousands of times. From tourists, amateurs and professionals. Always captured on paper or the digital matrix. Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Alexanderplatz in the heart of Berlin. Thousands, even millions of looks at the striking symbols of a metropolis that want to capture the essence of the city. Ulrich Wüst was far away from such direct concepts. His view of Alexanderplatz is almost shy, more of a cautious approach, and yet he gets a grip on the place. But it’s not primarily about Berlin. Wüst’s city images are less studies of specific cities than “images of intellectual-spatial situations,” as the art historian and rector of the Dresden University of Fine Arts Matthias Flügge states in his insightful text for the photo book Ulrich Wüst – Stadtbilder 1979-1985 (Ulrich Wüst – City Images 1979-1985).

If you read Flügge’s text, it becomes clear once again that a picture is not just a picture and that it requires more than a fleeting observation, especially with a subject like the cityscape. Because you could easily come to the conclusion that you immediately understand the motif at hand, after all, you yourself are a city dweller and are aware of your habitat. But a photograph is also a starting point for deeper reflections. Wüst’s photographs of prefabricated buildings in East Berlin, vacancies in Magdeburg, and the central square in Karl-Marx-Stadt are not unseen motifs. Rather, they are all too well known. Such urban constellations should not be foreign to anyone who lived in the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s, or even those born later or socialised in the West. …

“Determining the status quo of the constructed, shaped, printed or otherwise produced objective world with all its traces, injuries, missing and empty spaces in the image, so that things begin to speak of themselves,” is what Wüst does, writes Flügge.

Jacek Slaski. “Ulrich Wüst – Stadtbilder 1979–1985: Zwischen Kunst und Dokumentation,” on the tipBerlin website 03/02/2022 [Online] Cited 08/04/2024. Translated from the German by Google Translate. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Berlin' 1982 From the series 'Cityscapes. 1979-1985'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Berlin
1982
Aus der Serie: Stadtbilder. 1979-1985
From the series: Cityscapes. 1979-1985
B/w archival pigment print
16 x 24cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

 

“For me it had always been about the built environment. […] And then I started on those rather dry Cityscapes, which always seems so objective, even though they never were and never tried to be. I wanted to take a concentrated, analytical look at the city. Back then I had a strong sense of mission; I really did want to achieve something. And the things I wanted to say about the city as space I also wanted to tell people who weren’t at all interested in photography or urban space. In some respects it was definitely intended to enlighten. Ultimately I wanted to provoke a debate about what we imagine a “city” to be and what this environment does to us.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Axel Hütte (b. 1951) 'James Hammett House' 1982-1984

 

Axel Hütte (German, b. 1951)
James Hammett House
1982-1984
Silver gelatin print on baryte paper
66 x 80cm
Loan of the artist

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Cityscapes. 1979-1985' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Cityscapes. 1979-1985' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Cityscapes. 1979-1985' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Stadtbilder. 1979-1985
From the series: Cityscapes. 1979-1985 (installation views)
B/w archival pigment print
16 x 24cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

The work of Ulrich Wüst might best be described as a pictorial archaeology of recent German history. With an unsentimental precision these photographic ‘excavations’ pivot around moments of social change; those points in history when the old and the new collide, when the seemingly endless cycle of destruction and construction can so easily relegate the present to the oblivion of the past.

Initially photographing life in the former East Germany, Wüst’s oeuvre grew to include the documentation of everyday situations, objects and materials; expanding further with the addition of found images, cropped and rephotographed by Wüst to reveal alternative readings.

In his sparse black and white Cityscapes, the 1980s series that first brought Wust to international attention, we find images of East German cities and towns still carrying scars from the Second World War – an environment formed through the combination of unchecked decay and Soviet-era reconstruction. With an interest in the absurd – those visual anomalies that arrive through accident or misguided intent – Wüst has forged a unique, non-ideological representation of that time. In a similar manner but on a different scale, Wüst’s Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege (1991-1992) – a photo inventory of objects left behind by the former owner of his house – engages us with the incidental nature of history. Intimate and fragile, these ordinary objects are made monumental through Wüst’s lens, yet these discarded possessions have the same precariousness as the hastily built architecture of cities in perpetual change.

Ulrich Wüst’s photographic work exists as a registry of everyday images. It could be considered akin to the personal archive of a once divided country mending itself, wandering through time, settling upon moments and fragments that also speak to the wider, universal phenomena of social change and its material manifestations.

Wall text from the exhibition

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Cityscapes, 1979-1985' (right), 'Morgenstraße. Magdeburg, 1998-2000' (second right), 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' (third right) and 'Red October', 2018 (left) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Cityscapes, 1979-1985 (right), Morgenstraße. Magdeburg, 1998-2000 (second right), Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 (third right) and Red October, 2018 (left) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Morgenstraße. Magdeburg, 1998-2000' (right), 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' (centre left) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Morgenstraße. Magdeburg, 1998-2000 (right), Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 (centre left) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Morgenstraße. Magdeburg' 1998-2000 (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Morgenstraße. Magdeburg' 1998-2000 (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Morgenstraße. Magdeburg 1998-2000
From the series: Morgenstraße. Magdeburg 1998-2000 (installation views)
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

“As soon as we see people in pictures, we focus on those people. We seem to be fixated on that somehow and we stare at the figures depicted, however small they may be. But as I wanted to steer attention to the built environment, to what we have built for ourselves, I quite simply decided to leave the people out. If there a no people in sight in the pictures, then for one thing nobody can look at them and for another the effect is disconcerting. Disconcertion is a good opening gambit.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Berenice Abbott (American, 1898-1991) 'Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan' March 20, 1936

 

Berenice Abbott (American, 1898-1991)
Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4, 6, 8, Manhattan
March 20, 1936
Gelatin silver print

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Kaffemühle' (Coffee grinder) From the series 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege 1991-1992'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Kaffemühle (Coffee grinder) 
Aus der Serie: Nachlass Wiegmann. Bülowssiege 1991-1992
From the series: Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege 1991-1992
Colour photograph, archival pigment print
105 cm x 70cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

 

“I make a point of calling myself a photographer, because then the art question usually no longer arises. But if others still want to see me as an artist, I can (happily) live with that. Personally I don’t want to think about that question. The only thing I do want to stress is that my work is not documentary. I use documentary technique as a form, as a means, and in certain works I am also looking for documentary precision.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege 1991-1992' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Nachlass Wiegmann. Bülowssiege 1991-1992
From the series: Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege 1991-1992 (installation view)
Colour photograph, archival pigment print
105 cm x 70cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Cityscapes, 1979-1985' (left) and 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' (right) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Cityscapes, 1979-1985 (left) and Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 (right) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' (left) and 'Notations 1984-1986' (right) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 (left) and Notations 1984-1986 (right) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Berlin, Pappelallee' September 1984 From the series 'Notations. 1984-1986'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Berlin, Pappelallee
September 1984
Aus der Serie: Notizen. 1984-1986
From the series: Notations. 1984-1986
B/w archival pigment print
14 x 21cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Notations. 1984-1986' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Notations. 1984-1986' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Notations. 1984-1986' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Notizen. 1984-1986
From the series: Notations. 1984-1986 (installation views)
B/w archival pigment print
14 x 21cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

“While I was still busy fine-tuning my technical skills for Cityscapes, over in West Germany very small automatic rangefinders were coming onto the market. That was in the early 1980s. […] I got hold of one of those and suddenly I could carry a camera with me all the time, take it anywhere, and I started using it like an “extended eye”. The little camera allowed me to take more intimate, more “personal” works. For me that meant talking about my own life. That was the beginning of the series Notations, as I later called it. I focused on my circle of friends and my immediate environment. And so the Notations came about and that was what I wanted to achieve, as a conscious antithesis to other series like the Cityscapes.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Red October' 2018, from the exhibition Wanderings About History – The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Red October 2018, from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Roter Oktober' (Red October) 2018

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Roter Oktober (Red October)
2018
Leporello with 45 b/w and colour photographs mounted on cardboard
14.8 x 21.0 x 2.0cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

Michael Schmidt (German, 1945-2014) 'Müller-Ecke Seestrasse, Berlin-Wedding' (Berlin-Wedding) 1976-1978

 

Michael Schmidt (German, 1945-2014)
Müller-Ecke Seestrasse, Berlin-Wedding (Berlin-Wedding)
1976-1978
© Michael Schmidt, Foundation for Photography and Media Art with the Michael Schmidt Archive

 

Tata Ronkholz (1940-1997) 'Dusseldorf, Sankt-Franziskusstraße 107' 1977

 

Tata Ronkholz (German, 1940-1997)
Dusseldorf, Sankt-Franziskusstraße 107
1977
Silver gelatin print on baryta paper
41.2 x 51.2cm
Courtesy The Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne / Permanent Loan of the Sparkasse KölnBonn

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Roter Oktober' (Red October) 2018 (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Roter Oktober' (Red October) 2018 (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Roter Oktober (Red October) (installation views)
2018
Leporello with 45 b/w and colour photographs mounted on cardboard
14.8 × 21.0 × 2.0cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

“Photographers love to complain about the chaos they work in and how that prevents them from keeping tabs on what they do. At some point I realised that the concertinas were a fantastic tool for tracing and recoding the progress of my work. Above all, they enabled me to locate my negatives, because I used very simple but precise captions with the place and date of the picture. I always liked the versatility of the concertina. Now, whenever I need to find a negative, I take one of these booklets of the shelf and look for the photograph. They have become a means to communicate with myself about my work and I miss them when they are being exhibition and I haven’t got them at home.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990' from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990, from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Die Pracht der Macht. 1983-1990
The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990
Leporello with 30 b/w photographs mounted on cardboard
14.8 x 21.0 x 1.5cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Die Pracht der Macht. 1983-1990
The Pomp of Power. 1983-1990 (installation views)
Concertina booklet with 30 b/w photographs mounted on cardboard
14.8 x 21.0 x 1.5cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Clarity and compositional elegance

It may also have been his professional disposition that led him to pay particular attention to the GDR city. After all, he was an expert. Wüst was an expert in the field of urban development; he knew exactly what he was photographing. In the midst of the “leaden times” of the GDR, an era shortly before the collapse in which hardly anything seemed to be moving. Mid-1970s to mid-1980s. Urban and housing construction has long since said goodbye to the promising ideals of a better, because socialist, promise. The reality was pragmatic and merciless. Dilapidated old building and decaying substance on one side and serial prefabricated building on the other.

Wüst’s pictures, which sometimes develop a peculiar irony in their clarity and compositional elegance, can also be understood as political statements. “They searched for clues in a way that was unusual in the GDR as a way of ascertaining the real perceived state of the present,” writes Flügge about the photographer, who knew exactly what he wanted to find and capture. Even the depiction of reality could be considered subversive in the workers’ and farmers’ state. It wasn’t appropriate to show things as they were. Rather, you should show things as they should be. …

By “limiting the image section, he forces reality to formulate its own,” summarizes Flügge.

Jacek Slaski. “Ulrich Wüst – Stadtbilder 1979–1985: Zwischen Kunst und Dokumentation,” on the tipBerlin website 03/02/2022 [Online] Cited 08/04/2024. Translated from the German by Google Translate. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark, 2014-2019' from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark, 2014-2019 from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008' (right) and 'Mitte. Berlin 1994-1997' (left) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Book of the Years. 1978-2008 (right) and Mitte. Berlin, 1994-1997 (left) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Schützenstraße / Jerusalemer Straße' 1996 From the series: 'Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Schützenstraße / Jerusalemer Straße
1996
Aus der Serie: Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997
From the series: Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

 

The different historical eras come together in his pictures. Relics from the pre-war period, often ruins, alongside the proud examples of Eastern Modernism from the post-war period, and finally the cheap and quickly built architecture of the present day. These photos are still important today, and not just for architectural historians and photography connoisseurs. Wüst’s pictures of the GDR city are visual findings about the condition of its residents, even if the people in them are absent. In his text, Flügge quotes from Alexander Mitscherlich’s book Die Unwirtlichkeit unserer Städte. Anstiftung zum Unfrieden (The inhospitability of our cities. Incitement to Discord), in which the doctor, psychoanalyst and writer examined the West German city as early as 1965: “This city shape is regressively shaping the character of its residents.” In his book, Mitscherlich hoped that the city would one day become a “biotope for free people”. It didn’t quite turn out that way, but in a certain sense Mitscherlich wasn’t entirely wrong either. The GDR would soon disappear and with it the GDR city.

Jacek Slaski. “Ulrich Wüst – Stadtbilder 1979–1985: Zwischen Kunst und Dokumentation,” on the tipBerlin website 03/02/2022 [Online] Cited 08/04/2024. Translated from the German by Google Translate. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997
From the series: Mitte. Berlin 1995-1997 (installation views)
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

I am well aware of how ambivalent photography is. And just because photographs have a documentary air about them, I find it to some extent dubious to slap a documentary label on them. If, ten centimetres from the edge of my picture, the whole content is counteracted by something completely different, then I can no longer claim to be doing serious documentary work. Documentation as a form, in my view, is just a way to explore a theme – a means. I only want to photograph and not distort things. It’s true that there is a documentary background, but what I do with it is always something of my own and totally subjective.


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Mitte. Berlin 1994-1997' (right) and 'Prentzlow. Prenzlau', 2018 (left) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Mitte. Berlin 1994-1997 (right) and Prenzlau, 2018 (left) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Prenzlau', 2018, from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Prenzlau, 2018, from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series ‘Prenzlau’ 2018

 

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Prenzlau
From the series: Prenzlau
2018
Colour photograph, archival pigment print
45 x 30cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Prenzlau' 2018 (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Prenzlau' 2018 (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Prenzlau' 2018 (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Prenzlau
From the series: Prenzlau (installation views)
2018
Colour photograph, archival pigment print
45 x 30cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege 1991-1992' (right) and 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008' (left), from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 (right) and Book of the Years. 1978-2008 (left), from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Kreta' (Crete) 1997 From the series 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Kreta (Crete)
1997
Aus der Serie: Jahrebuch. 1978-2008
From the series: Book of the Years. 1978-2008
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Jahrebuch. 1978-2008
From the series: Book of the Years. 1978-2008 (installation views)
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019) 'London' 1951

 

Robert Frank (Swiss-American, 1924-2019)
London
1951
Gelatin silver print

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Jahrebuch. 1978-2008
From the series: Book of the Years. 1978-2008 (installation view)
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Das Siebengebirge von der unteren Terrasse hin zur Löwenburg' 1922

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Das Siebengebirge von der unteren Terrasse hin zur Löwenburg
The Siebengebirge from the lower terrace towards the Löwenburg castle
1922
Gelatin silver print
© Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Sitftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Köln; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2022

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Book of the Years. 1978-2008' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Jahrebuch. 1978-2008
From the series: Book of the Years. 1978-2008 (installation view)
B/w archival pigment print
18 x 27cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

A collection/compilation. A great deal of chance and responding to mood. The urban excursions, by contrast, followed a strict pattern. There it was about the grey cityscapes, grey “Mitte” and grey “Morgenstraße”. And yet all of them were taken in bright sunlight! Without the weather forecast promising a safe sunny day, I would probably never have been brave enough to set out on wanderings that did not augur much solace.

Most of the pictures in the book of the Years, on the other hand, really were taken in grey weather. They were done over a period of thirty years, mostly without any particular intention, straight from the experience. Later I gathered them into a kind of melancholy section through times and places. The pictures say: I was here. And I was in this or that mood. They are mood! And sometimes they flirt with the mood as well. That can happen.

~ Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Mitte. Berlin 1994-1997' (right), 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark, 2014-2019' (left) and 'Prentzlow. Prenzlau', 2018 (centre) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Mitte. Berlin 1994-1997 (right), Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark, 2014-2019 (left) and Prentzlow. Prenzlau, 2018 (centre) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

 

Ulrich Wüst’s photographic work captures his wanderings through German history, portraying the social and urban transformations from the GDR and its disintegration, through the German reunification to the present day. Wüst revives the German history in a new static way, where the past and present clash in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.

Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst shows a selection of nine suites taken between 1978 and 2019. Ulrich Wüst’s photographic work can be contemplated from different perspectives. While the observations captured here are rooted in Germany’s division and its mending, at the same time they always relate to universal phenomena of social change and its material manifestations. The seemingly terse images, extremely precise in their composition, are the fruits of lengthy visual wanderings through present sites of recent history.

An exhibition by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V., Stuttgart – in partnership with the Goethe-Institut. This project is an official exhibition of PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography.

Text from the RMIT Gallery website

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, 'Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992' (left) and 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark, 2014-2019' (right) from the exhibition 'Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst', RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024

 

Installation view, Ulrich Wüst, Wiegmann Legacy. Bülowssiege, 1991-1992 (left) and Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark, 2014-2019 (right) from the exhibition Wanderings About History. The Photography of Ulrich Wüst, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Photo: Christian Capurro

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Randlage. Die Gemeinde Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019
From the series: Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019 (installation view)
B/w archival pigment print
26 x 39cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) 'Parmen' 2016 From the series 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019'

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Parmen
2016
Aus der Serie: Randlage. Die Gemeinde Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019
From the series: Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019
B/w archival pigment print
26 x 39cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa

 

 

“In the last few years I started taking pictures in the countryside again. The idea was to have photographs of villages and landscapes that were just as “dry” as my cityscape series, like Berlin, or Magdeburg. The resulting work is far removed from any sort of rural idyll, but equally as far removed from the affection I have from these landscapes. I chose not to give too much away.”


Ulrich Wüst, wall text from the exhibition

 

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019' (installation view)

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949) From the series 'Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019' (installation view)

 

Ulrich Wüst (German, b. 1949)
Aus der Serie: Randlage. Die Gemeinde Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019
From the series: Village Edge. The Municipality of Nordwestuckermark 2014-2019 (installation views)
B/w archival pigment print
26 x 39cm
© Ulrich Wüst; ifa
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

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