Spencer Finch and Jan Dibbets

There are two artists I am looking at right now that both excite me and are influencing the direction of my work: Jan Dibbets and Spencer Finch. Jan Dibbets currently has a show up at Gladstone Gallery titled "New Horizons". After going through a two year stint of focusing on photographing horizon lines, I immediately related to this exhibit on a personal level. The show is comprised of two photos matched up in various ways by the horizon and cropped into various geometric shapes that create a formalistic harmony throughout the series.

Taken from the press release:

"For this new body of work entitled “New Horizons,” Dibbets returns to the optical structure that has become his hallmark. As Erik Verhagen says in his recent study of Dibbets’ oeuvre, “The horizon is not a subject like other subjects, for it exists only through and in relation to our sense of sight.” It is objective and subjective, circular and rectilinear, static and mobile. In these photographs, which conjoin different photographs of a landscape and seascape along the line of the horizon, Dibbets channels it as structuring principle, not only determining space and point of view, but also—in a very painterly way—the composition itself. By subordinating the mobility of the camera to the standardization of a straight line, these panoramas create a subtle tension between the seamlessness of the horizon line and the disjunction of land and sea, only further accentuated by the resulting asymmetrical compositions."

Sea-Land C/B1, 2007 Two unique color photographs mounted on mat board with graphite; 26 1/4 x 61 1/8 inches (66.7 x 155.3 cm) framed

Land-Sea AB3, 2007 Two unique color photographs mounted on mat board with graphite; 40 7/8 x 56 inches (103.8 x 142.2 cm) framed

Here are some images of projects by Spencer Finch and some info about his practice from his website:

Dusk (Hudson River Valley 10/30/2005)

"Finch carefully records the invisible world, while simultaneously striving to understand what might lie beyond it. Whether he is relying on his own powers of observation or using a colorimeter, a device that reads the average color and temperature of light, the artist employs a scientific method to achieve poetic ends. . . . Contrary to what one might expect, Finch's efforts toward accuracy- the precise measurements he takes under different conditions and at different times of day- resist, in the end, a definitive result or single empirical truth about his subject. Instead, his dogged method reinforces the fleeting, temporal nature of the observed world, illustrating his own version of a theory of relativity."

The Shield of Achilles (Night Sky over Troy) 2009

"This installation is an illuminated star map of the night sky as it appeared during the siege of Troy. This star map, comprised of 384 cans hanging from the ceiling, each illuminated by a single light bulb and punctured with a small hole representing a single star, is based on the Almagest, Ptolemy\'s original catalog of the 48 constellations named by the ancient Greeks. The magnitude and wavelength of each star is accurately depicted by the size of the hole and the color of the light. The hanging height of each star is determined by its distance (in light years) from Earth."

Thank You, Fog 2009

"60 Photographs, 4 3/4” x 4 3/4” (each), Digital Inkjet Prints. This photographic series was shot from a static camera at one minute intervals as a fog moved over the densely wooded landscape in Sonoma County."

Snowstorm

©Corinne Schulze

The most difficult part of making this photo was climbing the stairs at the Bedford L stop.