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Thousand
is the title of an ingeniously constructed exhibit of no less and
no more than one thousand Polaroid photographs taken by Philip-Lorca
diCorcia, currently on view at the David Zwirner Gallery in
Chelsea. The photographs were culled from over 4,000 that
diCorcia took over the last twenty-five years and provide a
detailed look at his life and work and mirror the compilation for
his 2007 book, Thousand.
The
pocket-sized photos display diCorcia's meticulous sense of
composition and eye for detail. The work here is not organized
into formal sections or categories; part of the challenge and
pleasure of viewing the show is in trying to piece together the
hidden links and logic behind the photographer's selections.
The Polaroid, first sold in 1948, captured the imagination with
its attempt to instantly capture and quickly deliver the world in
images. DiCorcia has always muddied the boundaries between
the artificially constructed and the documentation of fact.
These Polaroids capture intimate emotions as well as the random
events of everyday life - the pictures are in fact perfectly
composed and thought out - capturing a certain orchestrated
spontaneity. The photographs include Polaroids of many of
his well-known photographs, portraits of friends and family, as
well as everyday household objects. An empty airport lobby
or waiting room also has its place in this visual compendium, as
do double exposures and test shots - a taste perhaps of things
that don't always work out as planned.
Viewing
one photograph after another creates a visual story, and in a very
broad sense is comparable to the way film frames are knitted together into a
finished movie. The Polaroids are displayed at eye-level
along a long thin aluminum railing attached to the gallery's main walls
- forming a long multicolored ribbon or bandeau which winds its way through the
gallery.
Catch
Thousand while you still can, it's only open a few more
days. (Through March 28 at the David Zwirner Gallery, 525 West
19th Street.)
See:
The
David Zwirner Gallery
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