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November 2, 2011 - Spring 2012
One of the most beautiful applications of photography is the combination of specific detail with a sense of abstraction. --John Pfahl
In this group of beautiful photographs from the artist John Pfahl’s first major series, Altered Landscapes (1974-80) both details and abstraction are present. The wit of the series arises from the way the artist painstakingly adds and arranges simple objects to make them appear two-dimensional. Things are not as they first appear. For example, in Shed with Blue Dotted Lines, three weathered wooden shed doors stand at different angles; short bits of blue tape make three parallel dotted lines across the doors. At first glance, the lines appear horizontal, but on closer examination, it becomes clear that they range up and down the doors. In Triangle, Bermuda, a length of red cord is fastened to the beach to form the base of an equilateral triangle, with the sides vanishing under the surf. On the horizon, at just the point where the triangle’s sides would theoretically meet, a sharply pointed rock formation juts out of the water to complete the figure.
The precision of Pfahl's photographs seem to point to the process of altering negatives in the darkroom. But actually, they start as drawings on the ground glass inside the camera. (Ground glass is glass whose surface has been ground to produce a flat but rough or matte finish; in photography a sheet of ground glass is used for manual focusing.) The lines and planes of the drawings are then transferred to the landscape or image beyond the lens and juxtaposed against placed objects such as strings, ribbons, or tape, completing the scene.
While being clever and creating visual puns that play jokes on photography itself, Pfahl’s Altered Landscapes series raises serious questions for the viewer. How does a photograph frame what we see? How does it distort what we see? How does that framing reflect the way we look at the world?
Born in 1939 in New York, John Pfahl received his B.F.A. and M.A. from Syracuse University and taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology (1968-1986). His work has been published and exhibited widely.
In this group of beautiful photographs from the artist John Pfahl’s first major series, Altered Landscapes (1974-80) both details and abstraction are present. The wit of the series arises from the way the artist painstakingly adds and arranges simple objects to make them appear two-dimensional. Things are not as they first appear. For example, in Shed with Blue Dotted Lines, three weathered wooden shed doors stand at different angles; short bits of blue tape make three parallel dotted lines across the doors. At first glance, the lines appear horizontal, but on closer examination, it becomes clear that they range up and down the doors. In Triangle, Bermuda, a length of red cord is fastened to the beach to form the base of an equilateral triangle, with the sides vanishing under the surf. On the horizon, at just the point where the triangle’s sides would theoretically meet, a sharply pointed rock formation juts out of the water to complete the figure.
The precision of Pfahl's photographs seem to point to the process of altering negatives in the darkroom. But actually, they start as drawings on the ground glass inside the camera. (Ground glass is glass whose surface has been ground to produce a flat but rough or matte finish; in photography a sheet of ground glass is used for manual focusing.) The lines and planes of the drawings are then transferred to the landscape or image beyond the lens and juxtaposed against placed objects such as strings, ribbons, or tape, completing the scene.
While being clever and creating visual puns that play jokes on photography itself, Pfahl’s Altered Landscapes series raises serious questions for the viewer. How does a photograph frame what we see? How does it distort what we see? How does that framing reflect the way we look at the world?
Born in 1939 in New York, John Pfahl received his B.F.A. and M.A. from Syracuse University and taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology (1968-1986). His work has been published and exhibited widely.
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