I went to the Danziger Gallery while I was in New York in late Spring. I wrote up some blog entries for my other visits which I did on the same trip, but I never got round to writing this one up. It was actually particularly relevant for the current topic of light.
2 artists were on display, one (arguably in certain respects) being an updated version of the former - Gregory Crewdson and O. Winston Link respectively.
O. Winston Link's revolved around a locomotive, used as a background as it travels along it's track. It was only after viewing a number of the photographs that I realised that the train was in each photograph. I also found it difficult at first to determine if the work was contemporary or not - the work had a definate 40's / 50's feel, but it also felt decidedly contemporary. The hollywood-esque aspect seemed to be very knowing and therefore felt quite retrospective. Each of the pieces had a very theatrcial and setup feel to it - it looked to be painstaking, but of course the timing of each shot must have been precise in order to get the train into the background each time. The lighting itself was clearly epic in it's proportions - each shot was taken at night. There was almost an infrared quality to the work. For me there is definite "tableau" aspect to his work.
Gregory Crewdson's work is contemporary and colour, but has equally epic staging and lighting. It also had a somewhat 40's / 50's hollywoodesque feel to it. One key difference was the focus on the individual - there was a sense of loneliness and isolation that reminded me of Edward Hopper's work.
It's only when I came to write this entry that I realised that I already knew the work of Crewdson (partly from my reading - http://stevenbriggs7.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-photograph-as-contemporary-art_22.html). I certainly didn't recognise any of the pieces on display, but the work was in keeping with what I'd seen previously.
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