Nelson Hancock Gallery
111 Front St. #204, dumbo - Brooklyn, NY 11201
On the Page, On the Wall: four photographic books displayed
According to Lewis Baltz’s well-known formulation, “It might be more useful, if not necessarily true, to think of photography as a narrow, deep area between the novel and film.” This exhibition at Nelson Hancock Gallery includes work from four photographers’ books (and the books themselves) in an examination of the boundaries between novels, photography books, and films. Books have always offered an alternative venue for photographers, distinct from galleries and museums and walls in general. Books allow for the commingling of text with images, for fixed sequencing, for the inclusion of more images and a more intimate viewing experience. This exhibition showcases the transformations that photographic books enable and generate, as it displays four bodies of work that have been put into and pulled out of books.
Robert Gardner’s “Making Dead Birds: chronicle of a film,” revisits the planning and production of his landmark film, Dead Birds. Through carefully assembled letters, journals, telegrams, newspaper clippings and photographs, the book retells the film, with a parallel narrative that examines the evolving analytical and creative process of making a documentary film.
Amir Parsa will exhibit a series of “constellations” from a larger literary work of his entitled “L’opera Minora.” The constellations are arrays of fragments from the original text, including photographs and narrative passages written out in their original languages (English, French and Farsi). The resulting panels problematize the relationship between text-based narrative and photographic frames and illustrate in graphic fashion the transformation of book to gallery exhibition.
Accra Shepp’s “In the Loop” foregrounds photographic vision and process in an accordion-fold book made from a single fifty-foot long print. It includes 11 images, each composed of multiple 4”x5” negatives, depicting panoramic views of Chicago cityscapes as seen from elevated train platforms. The composite images, each a series within the series, forgo the conventions of the singular photographic frame in favor of sprawling sequences.
J.G. Zimmerman’s book consists of 32 photographs of decommissioned military planes, each assigned the role of a specific piece on a chess board. The thirty third leaf in the book recounts each move in the legendary 1972 chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. This highly anticipated and closely watched symbolic battle grew into a protracted melodrama in which US-Soviet tensions were dramatically played out in a world championship match. Zimmerman’s tightly cropped images reveal carefully composed fragments of weathered metal, patinas, faded paint, and shards of words and embody photography’s uncanny capacity for metaphor and transformation.
**There will be an opening reception for the artists on Thursday evening, December 13th from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
On the Page, On the Wall: four photographic books displayed
December 13, 2007 – February 16, 2008
Nelson Hancock Gallery
111 Front St. #204 - dumbo
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-408-1190
nelson@nelsonhancockgallery.com
111 Front St. #204, dumbo - Brooklyn, NY 11201
On the Page, On the Wall: four photographic books displayed
According to Lewis Baltz’s well-known formulation, “It might be more useful, if not necessarily true, to think of photography as a narrow, deep area between the novel and film.” This exhibition at Nelson Hancock Gallery includes work from four photographers’ books (and the books themselves) in an examination of the boundaries between novels, photography books, and films. Books have always offered an alternative venue for photographers, distinct from galleries and museums and walls in general. Books allow for the commingling of text with images, for fixed sequencing, for the inclusion of more images and a more intimate viewing experience. This exhibition showcases the transformations that photographic books enable and generate, as it displays four bodies of work that have been put into and pulled out of books.
Robert Gardner’s “Making Dead Birds: chronicle of a film,” revisits the planning and production of his landmark film, Dead Birds. Through carefully assembled letters, journals, telegrams, newspaper clippings and photographs, the book retells the film, with a parallel narrative that examines the evolving analytical and creative process of making a documentary film.
Amir Parsa will exhibit a series of “constellations” from a larger literary work of his entitled “L’opera Minora.” The constellations are arrays of fragments from the original text, including photographs and narrative passages written out in their original languages (English, French and Farsi). The resulting panels problematize the relationship between text-based narrative and photographic frames and illustrate in graphic fashion the transformation of book to gallery exhibition.
Accra Shepp’s “In the Loop” foregrounds photographic vision and process in an accordion-fold book made from a single fifty-foot long print. It includes 11 images, each composed of multiple 4”x5” negatives, depicting panoramic views of Chicago cityscapes as seen from elevated train platforms. The composite images, each a series within the series, forgo the conventions of the singular photographic frame in favor of sprawling sequences.
J.G. Zimmerman’s book consists of 32 photographs of decommissioned military planes, each assigned the role of a specific piece on a chess board. The thirty third leaf in the book recounts each move in the legendary 1972 chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. This highly anticipated and closely watched symbolic battle grew into a protracted melodrama in which US-Soviet tensions were dramatically played out in a world championship match. Zimmerman’s tightly cropped images reveal carefully composed fragments of weathered metal, patinas, faded paint, and shards of words and embody photography’s uncanny capacity for metaphor and transformation.
**There will be an opening reception for the artists on Thursday evening, December 13th from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
On the Page, On the Wall: four photographic books displayed
December 13, 2007 – February 16, 2008
Nelson Hancock Gallery
111 Front St. #204 - dumbo
Brooklyn, NY 11201
F Train to York Street
Exit to your right from subway station (on Jay Street)
Walk one block - turn left on to Front Street
111 is 2 1/2 blocks down
718-408-1190
nelson@nelsonhancockgallery.com
Labels: Accra Shepp, exhibitions
posted by Carla at 11:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home