“John Pfahl is an exemplary post-modernist landscape photographer. He is in love with the sensuous qualities of unspoiled vistas, and with the detailed transcription of them that a traditional view camera provides. But he is too self-conscious and historically aware an artist to give in to what tempts him, so he puts a conceptual frame around every picture he takes.” John Pfahl's work is a tireless investigation of our perceptions, encompassing a variety of approaches but always with a keen awareness of the interaction of vision, images, and nature. His series "Picture Windows" (1978-81) framed the way we likely spend the most time seeing, on a daily basis. Below is Pfahl’s artist statement having to do with his “Picture Windows” series.
“While making my "picture window" photographs, I came to think that every room was like a gigantic camera forever pointed at the same view. In the dictionary, of course, the word camera in Latin means chamber or room.
I searched the country for these cameras and their views: the more unusual or picturesque, the better. It was often hard to tell from the outside what could be seen from the inside, so I was usually surprised when I discovered a scene in its new context.
Strangers with puzzled looks were amazingly cooperative in letting me into their rooms with my photographic gear. They let me take down the curtains, wash the windows, and rearrange the furniture. Often, too, they expressed their desire to share their view with others, as if it were a nondepletable treasure.
I liked the idea that my photographic vantage points were not solely determined by myself. They were predetermined by others, sometimes years earlier, and patiently waited for me to discover them.”
I am currently trying to discover the formal components of the window and what exactly it means. I am not sure what exactly it means but John Pfahl was using it as a frame for what was outside the window as opposed to what the window means. He has a very formal way for his images and I hope that this becomes clear in my images as well.
Website:
http://johnpfahl.com/
Interview:
N/A
Gallery:
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_work_e.jsp?iartistid=4295
No comments:
Post a Comment