Originally from Virginia, the photographer Gordon Stettinius is an observer in search of curiosity. In the tradition of American wanderers, he likes to find the unique, capture some moment or bizarre thing and compile the images, which all share that feeling of being faced with the unexpected. Lacking an identifiable style, Stettinius’ work is part spontaneity, part anthropology and part satirical game, since humor plays an essential role in his work. The Robin Rice Gallery in New York is exhibiting one of his recent series, combining black-and-white and color images, which invites viewers to lose themselves in a place that does not exist, a place which is at once everywhere and nowhere, with grotesque buildings, unsuspecting objects and structures, a blind animal, and several funny scenes, like a scarecrow wearing a Yoda mask.
A fabulous discoverer of emblems of the common world, Stettinius primarily uses a Holga, the toy camera that’s come back into fashion. It’s a perfect tool for the kitschy pop references of his subjects, and the mystery of his images pushes photography to his aesthetic limits. It’s a pleasure to see the hopeful, the sinful, the fantastic, the playful, the disturbing, the banal, the touching: a compilation of the various materials of modern photography, almost a collection of those who have made history in the medium. All of this is funny, sometimes ridiculous but never in bad taste and always to nice look at—which is what counts. This is a brand of photography in the service of extravagance, comedy and the unusual. In a freshly cut field sit two large cardboard cut-outs of a tractor and a baby at play. In the distance lie the spectators of this man-made obscenity, the people in their tiny homes.
EXPHIBITION
Gordon Stettinius : Signals, Saints and Side Roads
From May 7th to June 15th, 2014
Robin Rice Gallery
325 W 11th St
New York, NY 10014
USA
(212) 366-6660
