So I finally made it to the Whitney Bienniel on Friday. Saturday was the last day. I thought ya'll would be interested in knowing about the pinhole photos in the show. Maybe someones already chatted about it, but I'll give my own description.
Vera Lutter turned various rooms in to Camera Obscuras, one overlooking a pier in NYC and the other at the Frankfurt Airport. What was displayed are the one of a kind large paper negatives, not prints. She has taken away the problem of editioning and limiting prints by using the negatives as the final piece. They are both about 5 feet high and 15 feet wide (just a guess). Each consists of 2 or three sheets mounted on canvas on a frame. The Airport one was the most interesting. You are looking at the underbelly of a large jet and it's wings are flying out to either side. Hirsch Perlman did something quite contrary to Vera. He did pinhole photographs over many months, in a room in his apartment. In the room he would continually be modeling and arranging things made out of cardboard. Alot of humanoid/robotic figures. Some of it is rather dark and disturbing, looking at something you don't want to see in someones mind. They were titled by the day of the project and which image it was. So 28.2 would be the second image taken on day 28. Totally the opposite of Vera's paper negatives. Hirsch's images are printed 16x20, quite negatives, making streaks and spots on the prints. Vera's were pristine, perfectly exposed, printed and mounted. As final works go I would have to say I like Vera's work better. It has a better graffic quality. But I must say my aesthetics in my own work are much more like Hirsch, grungy, small and personal. Check out the Whitney web site and see for yourself. http://www.whitney.org/2002biennial/ Later Lisa ********************** Olly Olly Oxen Free **********************
