Exhibition Review: Photographic Pictures: curated by Anne Collier
© Lew Thomas, I LOOK THEREFORE I AM from the series TELEVISION EYES, 1985
image courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Written by Amanda Karmolinski
Copy Edited by Janeen Mathisen
Photo Edited by Yanting Chen
Photographic Pictures, an exhibition curated by Anne Collier, will be presented at Anton Kern Gallery from June 30th - August 26th. This exhibition is inspired by Jiro Takamatsu’s early 1970’s series Photograph of Photograph. The pieces Collier selected to be a part of this exhibition are all pieces that display some other media form including literal photographs of a photograph, images displaying a magazine cover, pages of a novel, and more. All of these images convey multiple meanings, that of the original creator, and the meaning behind their capturing. Collier says in her press release that she hopes these images have an aesthetic tone that is “emotional, psychological, (auto)biographical, and even sometimes sentimental.”
© Jiro Takamatsu, Photograph of Photograph, 1973
image courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York
© Leslie Hewitt, Riffs on Real Time with Ground (soft crimson with dimmer function), 2021
image courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York
The many layers of meaning possessed by a photograph of a photograph can convey lots of intense emotion. For instance, “Untitled, 2017” by Marlo Pascual is a photograph of a photograph of a woman's eye with a teardrop beginning to fall. It’s entirely black and white, although the teardrop has a highlight upon it. This image begs the viewer to wonder what was happening in the original photo. What inspired it? Why was this woman crying? The shadows are strategically cast to draw attention to the piece’s emotional tone, and seeing the work displayed as an image of an image is breathtaking. The simplicity of “Untitled, 2017” carries immense emotional weight because of how it has been captured and displayed.
© Marlo Pascual, Untitled, 2017
image courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Intense emotional weight can also be found in Luigi Ghirri’s “Modena from the series Still Life, 1979.” It’s also a picture of a picture, but in a different medium. It’s an old-school photograph held up against a black backdrop for visibility. A woman and a child can be easily seen, and there’s an outline of a man, although he is harder to discern, as he is a mere outline. This piece could be interpreted in myriad ways. Is it a broken family? Is the brokenness represented by the man not being fully present? Even the photograph’s frame is telling a story, asking questions: perhaps it holds a sentimental and autobiographical aesthetic. It’s an already-captured family portrait being taken once again.
© Luigi Ghirri, Modena from the series Still Life, 1979
image courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York
A similar story-like feeling is displayed in “Crossing the Equator, 2016” by Zoe Leonard, which is series of photos of photographs of what looks to be a couple on a boat. These pictures have a feeling of peace: the couple are happy; they’re smiling and enjoying themselves, conveying to viewers the idea they’re living a simple, happy life. It’s a story frozen in a moment. The joy and simplicity causes the viewer to become sentimental and reminiscent of times when they also felt so at ease with the world and their life.
© Zoe Leonard, Crossing the Equator, 2016
image courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Collier carefully curated the pieces in this exhibition to tell a story, demonstrate an aesthetic, and conveys specific emotions. Furthermore, each and every piece was carefully selected and set up the way they were to get viewers to question the art they saw. Looking at a photo of a photo is automatically an intimate experience.
Installation image, courtesy the Anton Kern Gallery, New York
