Robert Adams :: Photography

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“Are there affirmable days or places in our deteriorating world? Are there scenes in life, right now, for which we might conceivably be thankful? Is there a basis for joy or serenity, even if felt only occasionally? Are there grounds now and then for an unironic smile?” ~ Robert Adams

For four decades Adams has photographed the changing landscape of the American West, finding there a fragile beauty that endures despite our troubled relationship with nature, and with ourselves. His photos are distinguished not only by their economy and lucidity, but also by their mixture of grief and hope. [Ext]

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‘Colorado Springs, Colorado’
Robert Adams
photograph
1968
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‘A backyard, Colorado’
Robert Adams
photograph
1968
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‘The New West series’
Robert Adams
photograph
1969
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‘Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs’
Robert Adams
photograph
1969
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‘Longmont, Colorado’
Robert Adams
photograph
1979
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‘Eden, Colorado’
Robert Adams
photograph
1969
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‘Longmont, Colorado’
Robert Adams
photograph
1976-1982
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‘Untitled’
Robert Adams
photograph
1978
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Robert Adams was born in New Jersey in 1937. He was a professor of English literature for several years before turning his full attention to photography in the mid 1970s. His work is largely concerned with moments of regional transition: the suburbanization of Denver, a changing Los Angeles of the 1970s and 1980s, and the clear-cutting in Oregon in the 1990s. His many books, well-known to those concerned with the American Landscape, include The New West, From the Missouri West, Summer Nights, Los Angeles Spring, To Make It Home, Listening to the River, West From the Columbia, What We Bought, Notes for Friends, California, Summer Nights, Walking, What Can We Believe Where? and The Place We Live. [Ext]

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Robert Adams :: The Place We Live

Robert Adams :: Fraenkel Gallery

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James Bourret : “Winter’s Veil” Series (Photography)

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“I seek to create richly evocative, emotional images from nature,
reflecting the mood, form, colors, and patterns of a scene.” J Bourret

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‘Winter’s Veil’ #10
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #26
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #28
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #27
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #2
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #7
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #7
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #6
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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‘Winter’s Veil’ #44
Giclée Print
8 x 10″
2009
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The water’s edge has been a source of fascination for me since I can remember. The changing landscape, the effects of current and water volume, light, and temperature all make the river’s edge different from day to day. Seasonal progression brings further changes, with winter bringing the growing and changing veil of ice along the bank, increasing until the surface is solid. Even then, the ice changes in shape and transparency on a daily basis, thinning, clearing, cracking, buckling, melting and freezing again, and eventually moving tectonically downstream.

These highly abstract images seek to transcend boundaries of formal and scale recognition. Flowing lines and curved forms in the ice are interrupted by spiky, angular forms and layered textures. The seemingly random crystalline forms and structures evoke associations with landforms (aerial photography) and microcrystalline structures (photomicrography) and leave room for endless possibilities of interpretation. Therefore, as a photographer, they offer the opportunity to find and make strongly graphic yet highly detailed, rich images. [artist statement]

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James Bourret : Portfolio

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Erwin Staeheli : “Gravel & Coal” Series (Photography)

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‘h422-11’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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‘h422-08’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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‘h422-07’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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‘h412-03’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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‘h409-11’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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‘h409-07’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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‘h410-12’
gelatin silver print
60 x 60 cm
2003
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Erwin Staeheli studied art in Basel, Switzerland. After a period of painting he changed to photography. From 1980 to 1994 he worked as a civil engineer, planning and supervising roadwork, concrete constructions and water supply systems. Since 1995 he’s worked as an art photographer. He lives in Switzerland and four months out of the year in Australia where he digs for sapphires and also takes photographs. Physical work is essential for his artwork. That’s one of the reasons he prefers to use the medium and large format cameras and why he prints on fibre-based papers in his own laboratory. [bio]

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Erwin Staeheli : Website

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Kristian Ulrich Larsen + Olafur Haraldsson: ‘Passing Through’

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“Like a wave in the physical world, in the infinite ocean of the medium which pervades all, so in the world of organisms, in life, an impulse started proceeds onward, at times, may be, with the speed of light, at times, again, so slowly that for ages and ages it seems to stay, passing through processes of a complexity inconceivable to men, but in all its forms, in all its stages, its energy ever and ever integrally present. A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes in Nature. In no way can we get such an overwhelming idea of the grandeur of Nature than when we consider, that in accordance with the law of the conservation of energy, throughout the Infinite, the forces are in a perfect balance, and hence the energy of a single thought may determine the motion of a universe…” ~ Nikola Tesla – “The Electrical Review, 1893”

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The text used for the narration of “Passing Through” is part of a speech Serbian scientist and inventor Nicola Tesla delivered in 1893 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Though today less known than figures like Edison and Einstein, Tesla was more or less the father of much of our modern technology, since he among other things developed the foundations of the European electrical system based on alternating currents and the principles of wireless radio communication. At the time he was deeply influenced by the Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, believing that the world should be conceived as a whole where everything is interconnected influencing each other. And that energy is a force that runs through everything be it inorganic matter, organisms or human consciousness. According to this line of thought every single action has universal consequences, not unlike what the father of modern chaos theory Edward Lorenz in the 1960’s termed ‘the butterfly effect’. Extract: Vimeo

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Annie Woodford : Ceramics

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‘Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere’

Blaise Pascal, mathematician, poet and philosopher.

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‘Encapsulator’
Porcelain, nylon mono-filament
46 x 12 x 12 cm
2009
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‘Silent Constrainer’
Porcelain, copper, stainless steel
38 x 24 x 18 cm
2008
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‘Slice’
Porcelain, nylon mono-filament
16 x 12 x 20 cm
2010
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‘Veiled Core’
Porcelain, nylon mono-filament
30 x 30 x 25 cm
2010
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‘Encapsulator’
Porcelain, nylon mono-filament
alternative view
2009
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‘Splinter 1’
Porcelain, copper, stainless steel
30 x 30 x 24 cm
2009
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‘Splinter 1’
Porcelain, copper, stainless steel
30 x 30 x 24 cm
Detail, 2009
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Artist Statement

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Intrigued by the tenuous connection between past, present and future and the shadowy, illusive meaning of time, Annie Woodford makes work that is both haunting and enigmatic. Shifting boundaries between science and metaphysics and an enduring interest in parallel universe theory instill the pieces with a heightened intensity, whilst an obsession with hidden worlds has prompted her investigations into microscopy and the nano universe – making the unseen seen. Captivated by the natural world and our mysterious, infinite universe – whether seen at macroscopic or microscopic levels – she finds them the source of endless fascination and wonder.

Mankind’s place within that universe and the dichotomy between our wish for progress and our proclivity for self-destruction, has become a central theme. A passion for frozen environments and the message they embrace, not only from the past but also for the future of our planet has resulted in research trips to the Arctic and Iceland and a detailed study of the coldest place on Earth – Antarctica. The work has qualities that reflect the intricacies of the natural world, elements that highlight its beauty and transience. Fragile, complex and esoteric, delicately balanced between risk and control, Annie’s pieces float and oscillate between absence and presence, hovering silently in a place between.

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Annie Woodford : Website

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Mary Christiansen : ‘Multi Plate Etchings’ (Prints)

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‘Himmerland’
multi-plate etching
107 x 107 cm
2008
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‘Untitled 2’
multi-plate etching
16.5 x 18.5 cm
2008
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‘Shadow line’
multi-plate etching
15.5 x 16.5 cm
2008
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‘Tilt’
multi-plate etching
19.5 x 20 cm
2008
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‘Untitled’
multi-plate etching
18 x 20 cm
2007
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‘Untitled’
multi-plate etching
15.5 x 17 cm
2007
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My pre-occupation as an artist is with creating highly distilled, contemplative nuances of feeling in print. I aim to compose images – drawn from nature and memory – of stark yet tactile forms, held momentarily out of balance; forms disappearing into immaterial shadows and configurations of form in spatial settings, undergoing transformation. I’m fascinated by forms appearing like projections onto surfaces, fragile and immaterial articulations, punctuated by the interplay of light and shade. Re-discovering delicate forms in space at distances defined by rhythm and structure, are of interest to me.

My objective is to create a state of suspension of individual elements, caught in a complex of layers with deceptive simplicity. The creation of these images is intuitive in nature. The creative process is ongoing, with every intuition, reflection and configuration, pre-figuring another possibility. The printing process is an integral part of my working process. The separation and building up of layers, multiple overprinting, the use of inks of differing viscosities – these modifications inform the work as it evolves. The tactile qualities of print-making, the depth and richness of surface, are crucial. – [Artists Statement]

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Mary Christiansen : Hughson Gallery

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