...approaching the photograph...
by Linda DiGusta
Capturing moments in history from the personal to the cosmic, politics and celebrity to flowers and urban landscape, the photographs for sale this week at Phillips de Pury tell the story of our world through the camera's eye. The very nature of an auction presents a range of photography that is a documentary unto itself, growing in its own telling , with the final impact unforetold until all has been assembled. From detailed realism to abstraction, famous images and others by even more famous names, from the anonymous photo of a leaping Jesse Owens in 1936 , to the image of the H-Bomb found online and re-imagined by photographer Michael Light, to the first ever image I have seen on public display of 9/11, the artists represented in this group present us with our universe, from myriad points of view, one evocative image at a time.
by Michael Light
Courtesy of Phillips de Pury
So, in a way, does Andrea Modica, whose solo exhibition from her new series, "Fountain, Colorado" is on view at Edynn Houk Gallery. Seemingly as far as you can get from the large offering described above, her approach is to immerse herself in one subject for an extended period - in this case she has followed the Baker family, who own and operate a slaughterhouse in the town of Fountain, Colorado, for 9 years - culminating in a collection of images. Her intense focus, when presented as an exhibition, explodes out of her self-imposed physical limitations to bring us an expansive vision touching on the mortal, the eternal, our hopes and fearsh- honestly, beautifully, deeply felt.
Jessie Owens Jumping
Courtesy of Phillips de Pury
Modica's ominous black and white images verge on the surreal without ever truly crossing the line, keeping us inside her irresistible narrative. Children at play, an embryonic calf in the palm of a hand, sleep and death, visions that echo where we all began and will end, yet hint at something more. Modica's camera may be a photographic device capturing a small part of life as it happens, but her art asks profound questions that take us both beneath and beyond the surface of her subject and leave us haunted.
andrea modica: FOUNTAIN, COLORADO 15 January -16 February
website
Photographs on view thru 1/30, more at
Credits (auction)
Anonymous, Jesse Owens in 1936 lot 24
Michael Light
100 Suns: 072 OAK, 2003 lot 59
all rights reserved by Resolve40 © 2008
