Thomas Demand
Catherine Opie
Florian Maier-Aichen
Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition, organized by UCLA art department professor Russell Ferguson and currently at the Hammer Museum, is an engaging exploration into the concept of creating a photograph.
From the museum’s statement:
When we say of a portrait that it is a perfect likeness, we mean not just that it accurately delineates its subject. There is a further implication that the image penetrates beyond surface appearance to give us some deeper sense of the person depicted. The same logic can be applied more broadly. There was a time when it seemed a plausible goal for the artist to resolve a picture so conclusively that the result of his or her work would potentially transcend simple representation to reveal the essence of the subject. Today such a project might seem naïve. We are glutted with images. What single picture might separate itself from this flood? Any such attempt to make such a work will lead inevitably to the question of composition. This issue is perhaps most urgent for artists working in in photography, a medium that now pervades every corner of daily life. The exhibition Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition looks at artists’ work with carefully composed photographic images.
The images chosen for the exhibition are often not exactly what they seem on first glance. Thomas Demand’s Diving Board is actually a model created in cardboard and paper. Florian Maier-Aichen’s La Brea Avenue in the Snow was inspired by a historical photo which he then created by drawing in snow on to his photo of Los Angeles houses and adding cars from different eras. Catherine Opie’s portrait of artist Lawrence Wiener appears at first like a Rembrandt painting but it’s the details within the image that draw you in for another look.
There are so many incredible images in the exhibition, it’s hard not to want to talk about them all. Check it out this weekend for free with two exhibition tours given by Russell Ferguson on Sunday (it closes 9/13/15).
(images via Hammer Museum and Art in America)