Edited by Susan Bell, Ryan Spencer. Text by Mitch Epstein, Susan Bell.
In his newest series, Mitch Epstein investigates permanence and impermanence by photographing rocks that last millions of years and clouds that evaporate before our eyes. These large-format black-and-white pictures, taken in New York City, examine society’s complex relationship to nature, a theme Epstein has explored in previous work, such as his acclaimed tree pictures. “While laid up with a ruptured Achilles tendon, I wrestled with the passage of time, which suddenly felt palpable; read Robert Smithson; and reconsidered the inextricability of nature and human society,” Epstein notes. “All this led me to photograph rocks and clouds in the city.”
The way the sky and ground can mirror one another intrigued ancient Chinese painters, as well as Smithson and the Surrealists, all of whom inspired this project. Here, Epstein draws attention to the sculptural quality of New York City’s clouds, bedrock and architecture--which, at its most elemental, is made from rock. Cloud wedges engulf a cargo ship, buildings recall Constructivist paintings and boulders are imposing elders in the middle of a park or sidewalk. Rocks and Clouds suggests society’s inability to control time and tame nature. While it seems impossible to make a fresh picture of New York, Epstein gives us a surprising portrait of it.
A pioneer of 1970s color photography, Mitch Epstein has photographed the human engagement with the landscape for the past 40 years. Epstein has won numerous awards including the Prix Pictet, the Berlin Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has recorded the cultural and physical evolution of the United States from 1973 to the present in his Steidl books Family Business (2003), Recreation (2005) and American Power (2011).
Featured image is reproduced from 'Mitch Epstein: Rocks and Clouds.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
L'Oeil de la Photographie
Mitch Epstein is one of the most prominent American photographers of his generation...[returning] with a potent trilogy to be exhibited in France for the first time: New York Trees, Rocks & Clouds.
Eye of Photography
While it seems impossible to make a fresh picture of New York, Epstein gives us a surprising portrait of it.
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"I have tried to learn something about nature's vernacular," Mitch Epstein writes in Steidl new release, Rocks and Clouds, "not by going to a remote forest, but by looking harder at the rocks, clouds, and trees in my city. Conceptual and technical skills I'd developed over forty-five years were inadequate to the task. Nature demanded more: that I wait and wait and wait, without knowing exactly what for; that I recognize failure as the inability to wait, rather than the inability to get what I wanted -- or thought I did. Sometimes waiting meant standing next to my camera for hours wondering if the weather would change in my favor; sometimes it meant hours studying a rock formation to figure out how I might animate it; sometimes it meant sitting on my couch staring at the movement of my dog's belly as she breathed. Waiting always meant that no matter how well I'd plotted my time and employed my intuition, my fate was at the mercy of the unexpected." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 11.5 x 14.25 in. / 160 pgs / 70 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $99 ISBN: 9783958291607 PUBLISHER: Steidl AVAILABLE: 2/27/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Steidl. Edited by Susan Bell, Ryan Spencer. Text by Mitch Epstein, Susan Bell.
In his newest series, Mitch Epstein investigates permanence and impermanence by photographing rocks that last millions of years and clouds that evaporate before our eyes. These large-format black-and-white pictures, taken in New York City, examine society’s complex relationship to nature, a theme Epstein has explored in previous work, such as his acclaimed tree pictures. “While laid up with a ruptured Achilles tendon, I wrestled with the passage of time, which suddenly felt palpable; read Robert Smithson; and reconsidered the inextricability of nature and human society,” Epstein notes. “All this led me to photograph rocks and clouds in the city.”
The way the sky and ground can mirror one another intrigued ancient Chinese painters, as well as Smithson and the Surrealists, all of whom inspired this project. Here, Epstein draws attention to the sculptural quality of New York City’s clouds, bedrock and architecture--which, at its most elemental, is made from rock. Cloud wedges engulf a cargo ship, buildings recall Constructivist paintings and boulders are imposing elders in the middle of a park or sidewalk. Rocks and Clouds suggests society’s inability to control time and tame nature. While it seems impossible to make a fresh picture of New York, Epstein gives us a surprising portrait of it.
A pioneer of 1970s color photography, Mitch Epstein has photographed the human engagement with the landscape for the past 40 years. Epstein has won numerous awards including the Prix Pictet, the Berlin Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has recorded the cultural and physical evolution of the United States from 1973 to the present in his Steidl books Family Business (2003), Recreation (2005) and American Power (2011).
