John Pfahl: Pictured Windows
John Pfahl’s unique vision of every room as a gigantic camera will come to life in a series of photographs that will be featured in an exhibition titled Pictured Windows at the Joseph Bellows Gallery.
From 1978-1981, Pfahl comprised a body of work whose aesthetic and contents transcended through three decades and fit exceptionally well within the contemporary photographic practice – revealing both a lineage and a trajectory.
Pfahl’s work uses the three-dimensional phenomena of visual perception within the two dimensions of the photographic print. He takes the pictured window concept, which has been commonplace in the visual vernacular of America for years, to a whole new evolutionary level beyond the philosophy of straight photography.
In the three years Pfahl took to make this body of work, he went throughout the United States capturing the daily beauty and view strangers often saw from the four corners of their windows.
His idea for Picture Windows evolved from the abundance of large-format colour work and its sensuous qualities, but he wanted to use them as an integral part of the conceptual basis for the work in a way that would require him to use his wits. The compelling pictures were taken in a focus that pushes beyond the boundary of what the human eye can perceive, allowing for a final product that pushes every element up to the photograph’s surface, making it a field for formal relationships that don’t exist in normal human vision.
Pfahl’s work has also been featured in many galleries and museums around the United States and he has also produced a book titled Altered Landscapes.
The exhibition will open on Saturday 8 November 2014 and will close on Wednesday 31 December 2014.
www.josephbellows.com
www.johnpfahl.com
—
