Bruce Wrighton, Unitled (Still Life), circa 1980
November 12, 2019
Bruce Wrighton left behind a rich trove of photographs after his untimely death in 1988 at the age of 38. He is best known now for his outstanding documentary photography but an early series of still life photographs has always been an intriguing, if slightly mysterious, body of work.
"The nascent phase of these photos was around 1978 when Bruce and I met in Binghamton, NY. Bruce was a collector of found items, there was a wholesale florist near our apartment and I collected the discarded flowers, of which there was an abundance. As with all of his work, design, color, architecture, composition and scale were paramount. He spent hours creating these still lifes, set out on our living room floor to review overnight or over days; some were photographed after the first and only arrangement, others were manipulated over a number of days. When asked by a friend what he wanted to achieve with his photographs he said that he was drawn to objects, people, places based on factors that he found both compelling and numinous."
-Patricia Flery, 2019
