OTHER BODIES: A COLLECTION OF VERNACULAR PHOTOGRAPHY
January 14 – February 11, 2012
ZieherSmith proudly presents 65 found photographs spanning the American 20th century, celebrating its conspicuous beauty and encapsulating a lifestyle of exquisite hubris, baffling habits and poetic leisure. Focusing on the eerie and bizarre found in everyday life, including odd family units, perverse couplings of awkward figures in vaguely familiar places, and solo views of predominantly male figures, the patina of the vintage prints are often enhanced by blurring caused by misfired flash-bulbs, over and double exposures, crude processing and care-worn edges. This singular grouping invites the viewer to see a crooked world through straight and narrow eyes and 65 ostensibly unrelated (and virtually untraceable) sources reinvented as a new, fleeting narrative.
While sometimes resembling canonical photographers such as Ralph Meatyard, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, or Mike Disfarmer, we remember that each of these photographs was taken for personal reasons altogether removed from the public realm. They are therefore crucial documents of a nature alternately anthropological and historical, but always luscious in their unorthodox and rarefied aesthetics.
Amassed by artist Jason Brinkerhoff over a period of roughly ten years, the selection in Other Bodies was culled from nearly 2000 photographs found from a wide variety of sources and curated over two years by the artist and gallery owner Scott Zieher. The individual works are available for sale and inquiries can be made at 212-229-1088 or info@ziehersmith.com.
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 am - 6 pm, and by appointment
ZieherSmith / 516 W 20th St / New York NY 10011 / 212-229-1088 gallery / info@ziehersmith.com / www.ziehersmith.com
