Bryan Zanisnik was born in 1979 in Union, New Jersey. Today, he lives travelling between New York and Stockholm, Sweden. His art discusses autobiographical and social subject matter through the use of videos, performances, installations, and photographs. His pieces include whimsical but strange and sometimes dreary elements as he explores the dynamic between performer and audience. I was drawn to this artist because he creates work that I normally don’t, and lately I’ve enjoyed learning more about conceptual and performance art. My favorite piece that he created was the Meadowlands Picaresque, which was a site-specific installation that was inspired by the Meadowlands swamps near his birthplace of Northern New Jersey. In this piece, he was interested in finding the ‘blank spots on the map’ and exploring them to discover what forgotten things they might hold. He wanted the viewers of this installation to be able to play and explore as if they were experiencing what he did when he got the inspiration for the piece.
“And maybe that’s also what really drew me: That it’s so much of the same thing again and again and again. It’s kind of monumental in its nothingness.”
– Bryan Zanisnik
In the 1900’s Zanisnik’s great grandfather supposedly wrestled a wolf in Ukraine. In 2007 he himself traveled to Ukraine and researched this story about his family and found out it was true. His piece titled, He is Not a Man is a live performance inspired by these events. Zanisnik invited a childhood bully to dress as the wolf and box him. The boxing match was real and Zanisnik lost in three rounds.
“I kind of think of building one of my installations as if I’m constructing a stream of consciousness sentence. That not every word leads into the next, but there’s an overall mood or feeling being constructed.”
-Bryan Zanisnik
In 2012 Zanisnik got a cease & desist letter from the author Philip Roth’s legal counsel for holding one of his novels during a performance piece. The utter ridiculousness of this legal battle inspired Zanisnik to create the Philip Roth Presidential Library, a series of giant sculptures made of drywall and wood that each held hundreds of Philip Roth novels inside. The installation both showcases Roth’s genius while also criticizing him and his big ego.
by Rebecca Bartlett
2D Design
Lutter, Vera. https://photolondon.org/event/turning-time-vera-lutter/. digital photograph. September 30,2018.“The first time I created a camera obscura, after I had realized how long I had to sit in there to adjust my eyes to the darkness, to see the projection, which is about 20 or 30 minutes—I thought I’d seen God. When I saw the first projection, it was an epiphany. It was probably one of the most overwhelming moments of my life.” – Vera Lutter, BombMagizine.org Interview
Vera Lutter, Empire State Building, II: November 28, 2014
Unique gelatin silver print, 91 × 56 inches (231.1 × 142.2 cm)
Vera Lutter was born in Kaiserslauten, Germany in 1960, and she currently lives and works in New York. She got her undergraduate degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich 1991. She went to New York in 1993 to begin studying photography other similar media at the School of Visual Arts. She has won various awards including Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2002, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2001, Artist-in-Residence IASPS in 1997, DAAD in 1993, International Center for Advanced Studies Grant for Project on Cities and Urban Knowledge in 1997. She also has several solo exhibitions and group exhibitions. She has several works in Public collections in museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Neue Galerie in New York, and more in other places all over. Her work has distinct look and an interesting method of how its made.
Vera Lutter, Chrysler Building, V: July 12, 2014
Unique gelatin silver print, 95 1/4 × 56 inches (241.9 × 142.2 cm)“Over and over, I’m totally fascinated. The fast movements don’t stay in the photograph, but I see the cars driving through the image, I see trains, boats going by, birds and airplanes flying through. It’s like watching a film, but the image is reversed, upside down, and very crisp.” -Vera Lutter, BombMagizine.org Interview
Vera Lutter, Campo Santa Sofia,Venice, XV: December 12, 2007
Unique gelatin silver print, 68 5/16 × 56 inches (173.5 × 142.2 cm)
Her art has certain look to it that isn’t like anyone else. As a photographer of the real world, these are all images of places that really exist. The works are black and white negative images that capture an interesting new way to see the work. They are completely void of any people which adds to the ghostly look of the world through her images. Sometimes her work captures an object that was later moved, but they caught enough to leave ghosts behind. That effect adds to her topic of time and space being her focus in her work.
Vera Lutter, Mycenius Pyramid, Giza: April 13, 2010
Unique Silver Gelatin Print, 14 7/16 × 27 ⅜ inches, (36.7 × 69.5cm)“I never know what is going to happen. My way of working is very hands-off. I install the apparatus of observation, the camera, and then endure the process of observation and record whatever happens. The work is essentially about the passage of time, not about ideas of representation.” – Vera Lutter, BombMagizine.org Interview
Vera Lutter, Frankfurt Airport, VII: April 24, 2001, unique silver gelatin print, 3 panels, 86 x 168 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Max Hetzler Gallery, Berlin.Unique Silver Gelatin Print, 14 7/16 × 27 ⅜ inches, (36.7 × 69.5cm)
How does she create these images? She something called a pinhole camera. A Pinhole camera, or camera obscura, is a light-proof box with a single tiny pinhole. Light from a scene passes through that hole and creates an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. Lutter uses this type of photography to capture her images over the course of time. For her larger images, she uses a large wooden pinhole camera that is big enough to walk into. It is near close in size to a shipping container. The black and white negative effects are created by choice to leave due to various lengths of exposure and size of the hole determining how it will look as it develops. It also adds traces of movement from when things have shifted slightly as time passes; although, the faster objects, like people, rarely leave any image or even ghosting in her work. That movement only adds to her ideas of space and time in her work. The end result is a strange and beautiful scene. She kept them as negatives to maintain her idea of directness, and she wanted the least amount of alteration and reproduction as possible.
Vera Lutter, Zeppelin Friedrichshafen, I: August 10–13, 1999, unique silver gelatin print, 55 x 81 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery, New York.“Well, I use a trough about 60 inches long, and approximately 10 by 10 inches deep and wide. You fill that up with five gallons of chemicals. Putting the paper in rolled up, you learn very quickly how to roll it from one end to the other. Then you pull it out and turn it around so the beginning is facing you and you roll again. It is anxiety driven: if you are too slow, you get developer marks. Knowing how long one turn takes helps you stop the process at the right moment. It’s choreography.” -Vera Lutter, BombMagizine.org Interview
Vera Lutter, Folding Four in One, 2009
Film mounted to Plexiglass
8’6” x 15’ x 15’ (2,6 x 4,6 x 4,6 m)
The more I looked into her work the more fascinating I found it. I love how it captures the world; however, I was originally captured by the stark contrast between real life and this and the lack of color, but I find the message and the process behind the photographs only added to the art. I hardly noticed the lack of people at first, but when it struck me I got whole other set of emotion and understanding from the photographs. There was awe, surprise, and something a bit frightening by the ghostly emptiness. I do love that about it. It got me thinking about how time flies by and how we hardly leave a mark. She certainly gets her depiction of time and space through her negatives.
Vera Lutter, Times Square, New York, V: July 31, 2007
Unique gelatin silver print, 101 × 56 inches (256.5 × 142.2 cm)
Works Cited
“Biography.” Vera Lutter’s Biography, Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, 2012, www.alfonsoartiaco.com/web/index.cfm?id=C64F6E6D-9D44-4A04-BFE460D20FA8A5FC.
Clarridge, Dave. “About Pinhole.” The Pinhole Gallery, The Pinhole Gallery, 2018, www.pinhole.org/about-pinhole-2/.
Dykstra, Jean. “Vera Lutter, 976 Madison Avenue, New York, January 29–March 7, 2015.” Gagosian, Gagosian, 12 Apr. 2018, gagosian.com/exhibitions/2015/vera-lutter/.
King, Jennifer. “Behind the Scenes: Vera Lutter’s Artist Residency at LACMA.” Unframed, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 24 July 2017, unframed.lacma.org/2017/07/24/behind-scenes-vera-lutter%E2%80%99s-artist-residency-lacma.
Lutter, Vera. “Vera Lutter.” Works || Vera Lutter, Vera Lutter, 2013, veralutter.net/works.php.
“Vera Lutter.” Claudio Bravo Biography – Claudio Bravo on Artnet, Pace Gallery, 2016, www.artnet.com/artists/vera-lutter/biography.Wollen, Peter. “Vera Lutter by Peter Wollen – BOMB Magazine.” Amy Hempel – BOMB Magazine, Bomb Magazine, 1 Oct. 2003, bombmagazine.org/articles/vera-lutter/.
Gregory Colbert is a photographer and a filmmaker from Canada. He initially started working in film, creating documentaries on social issues. From there Colbert went on to work in photography. The first showing of his work was held in Switzerland, at Musee de Elsyee, in 1992. After finishing his first exhibit, Colbert decided to travel the world, and he did so for the next ten years. He visited places such as Antarctica, Egypt, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Tonga, Dominica, Namibia, and Burma (Colbert). Below is one of his works.
During Colbert’s traveling he created Ashes and Snow. This is a continuous artwork about the relationships between humans and wild animals. Ashes and Snow is a collective artwork including, a hour film, two shorter films, called “haikus,” and more than fifty photographs. The images are incredible; the animals and the humans seem as though they hold a special bond between them.
The first time Ashes and Snow was shown was in Venice, at Arsenale, in 2002. Colbert’s artwork is now shown in a Nomadic Museum (which started up in 2005). It is a permanent housing for Ashes and Snow and it gives the exhibit the ability to follow the artist around from town to town. Over 10 million visitors have attended Colbert’s Ashes and Snow, since it was first exhibited in Venice. The traveling museum has been to places such as New York, Santa Monica, Mexico City, and Tokyo.
The photos in the exhibit are around 7 ft by 12 ft; such a large size image itself can really draw the audience to the piece. A truly amazing thing about Colbert’s photography is that none of the photos have been altered digitally. The images are truly just moments that the artist caught and captured between people and animals.
Colbert tries to show the connection between humans and animals. Colbert’s artwork incorporates many different types of animals including, cheetahs, asian elephants, meerkats, orangutans, manatees, humpback whales, royal eagles, and many others. Ashes and Snow depicts these animals in their natural environment, with humans in theirs, and together shows how they interact with one another.
Colbert presents the images in the Nomadic Museum by themselves. There is no text displayed with the images. The artist wants each viewer to have a connection with the work and not have words interfere with their own personal experience. The images clearly show intimate moments between humans and the animals they are photographed with.
Colbert is connected to his work, and has a distinct idea that he is striving to get across to his audience. It is clearly drawn out when Gregory Colbert said, “In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that is without beginning or end, here or there, present or past.” It is good to know that Colbert can still find parts of the world where animals and people do still live in harmony.
Colbert’s images show animals that many people consider wild acting almost as if a loving pets. There are still places on earth where there is a mutual love and respect between animals and humans and these images unmistakably depict that. One thing for certain is that as Colbert continues to work on this series there will be more unique moments caught between animals and humans. Many people will be looking forward to future pieces by Colbert.
