Tag: Vera

by Rebecca Bartlett 2D Design

“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 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.

“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

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.

“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

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.

“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

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.

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/.