This exhibition highlights work by three contemporary photographers, each of whom implemented a panoramic viewpoint to examine a specific urban environment. Catherine Opie (American, born 1961) created inkjet prints from scans of 7x17-inch negatives of the mini-malls that characterize Los Angeles's automobile culture. Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao (Taiwanese, born 1977) digitally combined color film negatives into seamless inkjet prints for his Habitat 7 project, which traces the route of the New York subway from Queens to Manhattan. By layering hand-cut chromogenic prints made in Reykjavik at midnight during the summer solstice, Soo Kim (American, born South Korea, 1969) achieved the three-dimensional effect of a semitransparent city.
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American artist Catherine Opie has long been preoccupied with the service stations and mini-marts, which litter the landscape of Los Angeles. Highlighting a city ruled by cars and convenience, Opie’s images are distinctive in their deadpan style.
By contrast, South Korean-born, American artist Soo Kim has, for the past ten years been photographing the cityscape of Reykjavik during the summer solstice - when the sun never sets. Using layering and cutting techniques to produce compositions of disarming depth, Kim’s photographs are almost exclusively devoid of life.
Finally, Taiwanese artist Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao – the youngest of the artists on show – has been photographing his home city of New York since graduating back in 2005. Inspired by the number seven subway line, which lies between Queens and Manhattan, Liao’s repetitive series of digitally altered photographs build a dense, personal perspective on the city.
February 2 - June 6, 2010
The Getty
200 Getty Centre Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1681
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