25th Street at 11th Avenue
Image Not Available
Photograph
25th Street at 11th Avenue
2015
Chromogenic development print (negative)
Image: 34 × 28 in. (86.4 × 71.1 cm)
Frame: 38 1/2 × 32 1/2 in. (97.8 × 82.6 cm)
Purchase with funds from the Rusitzky Photograph Endowment Fund, 2017
2017.0020.0001
Inscriptions [verso unavailable at time of cataloging]
TextJohn Chiara makes monumental color photographs using a trailer he converted into a camera. When he finds a location he wants to photograph, he enters the light-tight trailer, cuts photographic paper to size (in the dark), hangs it in place, uncovers the aperture, and waits until the image is exposed. Then, he re-covers the aperture and develops the print. The unusual colors and soft focus, coupled with the ordinary subject matter, create the impression of a remembered scenario without critical details. With the large scale and slick surface of the final print, the work emits a powerful yet detached presence, as though it is hiding the key to its own significance.
