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Sea Change: The Seascape in Contemporary Photography
"Sea Change brings together the imagery of nineteen artists who have returned to the world's oceans as photographic subject matter. Instead of focusing on maritime life, beach culture, or shoreline scenery, these artists look to the sea itself to discover its purest water, air, and light. The cultural orientation and literal geographic and physical orientation of the artists toward the sea vary. Whether their view be continental, coastal, island, shipboard, the work of each one reflects both the constancy and tumult of their subject. Featured photographers include Robert Adams, Tom Baril, Roni Horn, and others. Text by journalist and novelist James Hamilton-Paterson, who has written extensively on the sea, is included along with an essay by the curator."
64 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 9, 2013
Extremely middling book of sea photos.
james hamilton-paterson's intro has a couple good lines though:
Sea-dwellers everywhere have always lived by a mixture of practicality and superstition.
From the moment in 1735 when the first bathing machines appeared at Scarborough and Yorkshire and ladies began bathing, the foreshore steadily became eroticized. In the following century the counterpart of the affordable microscope was the cheap telescope, which became a standard piece of masculine beach equipment.
masculine beach equipment
the foreshore
languorous bathing
two poems I extracted from trudy wilder stack's short essay:
large embracing headings
our wet orb
As far as the photos, I really like John Mcwilliams "gray backs" - one of only a couple without a straight horizon line. you feel the current.
Liz Descehenes' could have been awesome if she smudged the edges between the grouped 48 images.
In general, the individual photos in the book don't do much on their own; even the Sugimoto is powerless, but when I've seen groups of these in person there is a real effect of all that black and the variations that ripple out.
James Welling captures a really nice piece of a wave. And thats whats so great about it - it feels like a solid piece, like it would make a great object in the living room.
tsunami art would be the only way to get an ocean in your living room. and then you could suffer a real titanic.
james hamilton-paterson's intro has a couple good lines though:
Sea-dwellers everywhere have always lived by a mixture of practicality and superstition.
From the moment in 1735 when the first bathing machines appeared at Scarborough and Yorkshire and ladies began bathing, the foreshore steadily became eroticized. In the following century the counterpart of the affordable microscope was the cheap telescope, which became a standard piece of masculine beach equipment.
masculine beach equipment
the foreshore
languorous bathing
two poems I extracted from trudy wilder stack's short essay:
large embracing headings
our wet orb
As far as the photos, I really like John Mcwilliams "gray backs" - one of only a couple without a straight horizon line. you feel the current.
Liz Descehenes' could have been awesome if she smudged the edges between the grouped 48 images.
In general, the individual photos in the book don't do much on their own; even the Sugimoto is powerless, but when I've seen groups of these in person there is a real effect of all that black and the variations that ripple out.
James Welling captures a really nice piece of a wave. And thats whats so great about it - it feels like a solid piece, like it would make a great object in the living room.
tsunami art would be the only way to get an ocean in your living room. and then you could suffer a real titanic.
June 17, 2018
I got this book from the library. I really wish I could keep it.
It's a hardcover exhibition catalog (I think..) - simply a series of photos of water as seen by 20 or so artists. Very nice.
It's a hardcover exhibition catalog (I think..) - simply a series of photos of water as seen by 20 or so artists. Very nice.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews