For this project, each of the 164 images in the Robert Adams monograph Turning Back was photographed in sequence. Using an enlarger as a light source, each image in the book was tilted at a particular angle so that the ensuing reflection would cause most of the black ink to turn white while highlights would retain the texture of the paper. Eventually this will be published as a limited-edition artist book.

Plate 3

Plate 5

Plate 10

Plate 15

Plate 19

Plate 22

Plate 27

Plate 35

Plate 56

Plate 19 wheat-pasted onto a fire door at Washington University’s In The Heart of the Heart of the Country exhibition.

Prestige Considerations consists of a number of long takes depicting commercial zones in Clayton and Brentwood, Missouri – areas located at the center of metropolitan St. Louis that serve as the central business district for St. Louis County. This project was envisioned as an assemblage of still photographs transposed into a moving-image format wherein the frame is static and the movement within is minimal and in real time. In each shot, the camera is positioned from the top of a quasi-public multi-story structure, providing a low-oblique aerial view. While the type of view is very similar to that which would be enjoyed a tall office building or hotel, placing the camera in freely accessible (although ultimately privately-owned) areas undercuts the logic of the office skyscraper, which stipulates that the higher up you are, the higher up you are.

Collaboration with Michael Powell. Three different magnifications were made from a panoramic postcard depicting the Austrian town of Innsbruck at dusk. The installation consists of one large framed print, three tiny matted and framed prints, and three prints affixed behind loupes. The back halves of the loupes, including the print and illumination source, are set seamlessly into the wall. Each presentation method yields a different proxemic distance, but each is made near the threshold of recognition where the representational image flattens into a halftone pattern.

Three illuminated loupes with 3″ diameter prints set into the wall.

Three inkjet prints, 23.6 x 15.6 cm, 16″ x 20″ frames.

Inkjet print, 63.5″ x 43″

Detail of loupe.

View inside loupe.

Detail of 15.6 x 23.6 cm print.

Every image bears the residue of a series of choices based on both aesthetics and economics. Rather than having those possibilities float freely, the objective with Horizontal Control is to account for (control) the multitude of choices that go into making a photograph by setting up a number of pre-determined, non-arbitrary conditions. Using the Western landscape tradition as the departure point, the main considerations at play are:

1) Where to stand?
2) Which direction to face?
3) Field of view.
4) Quality of light/time of year.  

Regarding each:

1) The camera is positioned as if it is a surveyor’s transit above each U.S. Geodetic Survey and Missouri Department of Natural Resources control point (benchmark) within Missouri survey township 45, section 7. This encompasses most of the central section of the City of St. Louis.

2) The camera is positioned facing east, ideally with the lens axis directly along the line of “true east,” although there were minor deviations due to operator error and/or framing concerns.

3) A Nikon DX format DSLR equipped with a 24mm lens was used for the entire project. This combination provides a field of view that approximates an individual’s field of vision without perceptible camera distortion.

4) These images were made from February-March 2012.  In St. Louis, the transition from late winter to early spring provides a condensed version of the year’s weather conditions combined with dramatic east-facing light.

Additionally, the title of each image is taken from the unique name, called the designation, that is stamped on the benchmark from which the image was made, and all are 24” x 16” matted and framed inkjet prints.

CSL-09A

CSL-13

B 311

CSL-11R

CSL-14

CSL-02

CSL-12

V 205

CSL-15A

CSL-11A

A 226

CSL-13A

CSL-10

U 205

A 311

CSL-02A

J 311

J 3

P 323

Marketing images located in public and quasi-public spaces depicting domestic interiors were re-photographed for this project, as were relatively convincing renditions of idealized landscapes. Laid out in a digest-size magazine format, these will be freely distributed as cheaply produced marketing material placed at random in real estate kiosks in cities across the country.

]]> http://serhiichrucky.com/projects/home-away/feed/ 0 http://serhiichrucky.com/projects/selected-before-need/ http://serhiichrucky.com/projects/selected-before-need/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:00:06 +0000 serhii http://serhiichrucky.com/?p=150 Colma CA, 2011

Cemeteries have been photographic subjects since the invention of photography itself. Southworth & Hawes’ daguerreotypes of Mount Auburn in Cambridge recorded the country’s first rural cemetery using the first photographic technique. Well known “masters” such as Atget, Weston, Adams, and Evans have all photographed cemeteries, as have innumerable amateurs and hobbyists. These photographers have concentrated on the interiors of cemeteries, varying their configuration of stone crosses and angels. Occasionally, surrounding buildings and objects are included within the composition, but the central concern has always been the evocative expression of poignant symbolism.

Standing at the edges of urban cemeteries facing outward, my back is turned on monuments, grave markers, and landscape design. My back is also ideologically turned against the sentimentality and romanticism programmed into the content of cemeteries. The act of photographing such content reproduces and reinforces the mythology of the cemetery, i.e. religious mysticism, commemoration, and a softening of death, whereas photographing the edge re-engages the cemetery with the surrounding reality.

St. Louis, 2011

Chicago, 2010

Los Angeles, 2011

New Orleans, 2011

St. Louis, 2011

New Orleans, 2011

Los Angeles, 2011

Evanston IL, 2010

Lake Forest IL, 2010

New Orleans, 2011

St. Louis, 2011

Washington DC, 2010

Queens, 2010

Willow Springs IL, 2010

Queens, 2010

Los Angeles, 2012

Lake Forest IL, 2010

St. Louis, 2011

Chicago, 2010

Queens, 2010

These photographs were made at points along the route of the Miami & Erie Canal in Cincinnati, beginning where the Canal met the Ohio River downtown and ending in the town of Lockland. Beginning in 1920, the canal was filled in, after which a boulevard was constructed over most of the right-of-way within the city. The selection of each location is discretionary, however, the governing principle is that either the photograph was shot from, or depicts where the canal was once located.

Ross Avenue, St. Bernard, 2009

Eggleston Avenue, Cincinnati, 2009

McMicken Avenue, Cincinnati, 2009

Forrer Street, Lockland, 2010

Mockbee Building, Cincinnati, 2011

Eggleston Avenue, Cincinnati, 2010

Broadway & Eggleston, Cincinnati, 2009

Central Parkway, Cincinnati, 2009

Colerain Avenue, Cincinnati, 2009

Eggleston & 4th, Cincinnati, 2010

Central Parkway, Cincinnati, 2009

Colerain Avenue, Cincinnati, 2009

Ross Park, St. Bernard, 2010

Central Avenue, Cincinnati, 2009

Vine Street, St. Bernard, 2009