Victoria Sambunaris (who photographed Frank Sinatra's house for us back in W*115) continues on her journey to produce thought-provoking photographs that document the geography of a changing American landscape. Her latest series: a study on the intersection between land and civilisation, 'The Border' series is the result of her two year 20,000 mile toil over the US-Mexican border area.
Driving and camping her way through terrain between Texas' Big Ben and San Diego, the rugged course led her to the geological delights of sites such as Rio Grande River, Big Bend National Park, and the 18-ft-high border fence which runs past border towns such as El Paso, Texas.
The places themselves are jaw-droppingly vast, and Sambunaris' treatment of this is skillfull, if not powerful - no mean feat, if you consider the all too real threat of grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, and other such questionable encounters.
This relentless pursuit of wanting to show the landscape for what it is, is Sambunaris' oevre, and one she does like no other. 'Borders', like her other work, doesn't look to carry a political message (despite what photographing border state landscapes would imply), but simply looks to create a neutral stance, and tries to resolve the question of how human development has reflected in the landscape.
Shot in film, the large-scale pieces (we are talking 39 x 55 inches of C-type prints here), are stirring and compelling, and a true consideration of the geographical and psychological barrier that the border carries.
ADDRESS
Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
3rd floor
New York
NY 10011
-
A celestial New York exhibition showcases Roman and Williams’ mastery of lightingLauded design studio Roman and Williams is exhibiting 100 variations of its lighting ‘family tree’ inside a historic Tribeca space
-
‘He immortalised the birth of the supermodel’: inside Dior’s career-spanning retrospective of photographer Peter LindberghOlivier Flaviano, curator and head of Paris’ La Galerie Dior, talks us through a new Peter Lindbergh retrospective, which celebrates the seminal German photographer’s longtime relationship with the French house
-
Take a bite: Laila Gohar and The Luxury Collection’s ‘Cakes & Candles’ are a sweet treat for the sensesLaila Gohar’s six cake-inspired candles draw on The Luxury Collection’s hotels around the world – where guests can enjoy matching edible confections
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
