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Fred
Herzog: Vancouver Color
David Plowden: Vanishing Point
April 3 - May 31, 2008
Fred Herzog:
Vancouver Color
From
April 3 - May 31, 2008,
Laurence Miller
Gallery will present the color photographs of Canadian Fred Herzog.
Herzog’s work is best described as a time capsule or treasure trove.
This will be his first
US
one-person exhibition. Perfectly composed and atmospheric, the
people and places that Herzog captured in the 1950’s and 1960’s,
remind us of a period of transition, hope and a move toward the modern
era.
Herzog immigrated to
Canada
from
Germany
following World War II. While employed as a medical photographer in
Vancouver
, his passion for photography took him on evenings and weekends to the
streets to document daily life. It was there he captured the
subtle human gestures of everyday people, savoring every moment in
perfect light. The unique public space that he so carefully cataloged
with glimmering lights and psychedelic neon has since been replaced by
big-name retailers and cookie-cutter storefronts.
Herzog’s work has been rapidly gaining attention after decades of
virtual obscurity. Working in the 1950’s & 1960’s with
color slides at a time dominated by black and white, his work was
primarily shown locally as a slide show presentation. His first
major exhibition was a retrospective of approximately 140 images in 2007
at the
Vancouver
Art
Gallery
. It is only now that this prolific body of work (over 80,000
Kodachrome slides) has begun to be printed in the way that the 78
year-old artist had envisioned it so long ago.
There
will be a reception with the artist on April 3rd from 6-8
p.m. His book Fred Herzog:
Vancouver Photographs, which was published in conjunction
with his retrospective, will be available.
David
Plowden: Vanishing Point
From
April 3 – May 31, 2008 Laurence Miller Gallery will feature a small
selection of iconic images from David Plowden’s new book Vanishing
Point that document an American past: trains, bridges, farms,
industries, and landscapes that have gradually, almost imperceptibly,
vanished.
David Plowden was born in
Boston
, grew up in
New York City
and
Putney
,
Vermont
, and has spent the past fifty years photographing the land, the small
towns, the people, and the man-made wonders of a country that has been
disappearing before his eyes. He once described the arc of his career as
being “one step ahead of the wrecking ball.” Not that he wanted it
that way. As a young man he was intrigued by trains, and photographed
them for the love of the imagery. Likewise the massive bridges and
awesome steamers that span
America
’s waterways in one fashion or another. He photographed things that
fascinated him, things that he loved. Now fifty years after his
first pictures of the American landscape, David Plowden has decided that
he no longer wants to photograph ghosts. This show celebrates a medium
and a past that is uncluttered, unpretentious, and beautiful, but also a
small reminder that growing, building, and changing also involves
destroying.
David Plowden’s new book Vanishing Point highlights a career
consisting of 50 years of photography. He has authored more than 20
photography books, and his work is in numerous private, corporate and
museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Library
of Congress, the International Center of Photography, and the
Smithsonian
Museum
of American Art.
View
exhibitions
Artist
Updates
Helen Levitt's
retrospective at the Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany opens Feb. 10 - May 25, 2008,
in honor of Helen Levitt receiving
the International Prize
of the Foundation of Lower Saxony
2008.
Ray K.
Metzker's new monograph Light Lines, published by Steidl,
will be available this spring. Hardcover. 224 page.180 tritone plates.$65.
Maggie
Taylor and Jerry Uelsmann's upcoming two-person exhibition at
the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA opens January 2008.
This show is curated by Head Curator, David Houston.
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