IN PHOTOGRAPHY.
Women's Work is a collaborative project by Courtney Borresen, Peter Bull, Claire Concannon, Nina Coyle, Jessica Greenberg, Ben Haist, Nicole Harvey, Zachary Press, Elizabeth Sankey, Hannah Sonnier, Bayley Sprowl and Zari Williams-Yee.
This web page is an assignment for Foundations of Art: Photography, a course taught by Stephen Hilger at Tulane University.
Vera Lutter
Vera Lutter has compared her unique process of photography to that of choreography. As the choreographer, she takes on an innovative perspective relying heavily on what the human being is unaccustomed to observing. In a 2003 interview with Peter Wollen for Bomb magazine, Lutter mentions that “being high above the world and seeing it that way is another idea I work with.” This can be clearly seen in the first photos taken from her loft, for example, 545 8th Avenue, Looking North. A technique utilized in hopes of helping to create such unique perspectives, is the revival of the camera obscura. Lutter uses a camera obscura the size of a shipping container in order to make gigantic prints. Her first print was 80 by 80 inches, and she used a trough 60 inches long and 10 by 10 inches deep and wide, which was filled with five gallons of chemicals. In addition, she often times transforms a room into a camera obscura, an optical tool that displays a view of its surroundings on a screen. A camera obscura consists of a box or room with a hole in one side. Outside light passes through the hole and hits a surface inside where it is duplicated. The replicated image is the exact same with the one exception that it is upside-down. Once reproduced, the image can be projected onto paper and traced. This basic photographic device is crucial to her work as she creates gigantic images that transcribe massive architectural spaces. Exposing her images for lengthy periods of time (from hours to months), allows her to capture traces of movement, which create almost transparent, seemingly ghostly outlines.
Vera Lutter, Campo Santa Sofia, Venice, XV: December 12, 2007
According to the Bomb interview, Vera Lutter is a trained Munich sculptor who moved to New York after receiving a DAAD grant. Living in New York instilled within her an interest of industrial sites as well as the themes of travel, transportation, and exchange. When interviewed, she stated, “Industrial sites interest me tremendously, both the ones that are fully functional — they are the most monumental, impressive manifestations of mankind pushing for industrial fabrication — and the ones that are already over the edge, rotting, decaying and taking on a life of their own. Decay becomes a process. A big theme that I’m still working on centers on travel and transportation, transfer and exchange.”
Vera Lutter, ‘San Giorgio, Venice XVIII: January 26, 2008
An exhibit dealing with architectural landscapes and transportation was at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, California (July 24- September 12, 2009). Works within this exhibit, such as Campo Santa Sofia, Venice, XV and San Giorgio, Venice XVIII, have a very rudimentary quality to them. These underdeveloped atmospheric works created on such a grand scale spark a sense of curiosity making it difficult to tear one’s eyes away, leaving them lost in the jet-black. In this particular exhibit, Lutter’s subject was Venice, adding to her list of places she has captured that are surrounded by water, including New York and Cleveland. This work from Venice allows Lutter to reach her goal of creating “an image in which the city appears to be suspended above its own reflection, rendering a place that appears to exist outside of gravity.” Her luminous images of architecture and transportation create an ethereal or otherworldly experience. When asked by Peter Wollen, writer for Bomb magazine, why her pictures do not contain people, even though the mediums of transportation used greatly involve human interactions, she explains that “people move too fast. I’m not sure to what degree the fact that people are missing is coincidence and to what degree it is intention. It almost concerns me to what degree I don’t intend to photograph people. I’m the polar opposite from a portrait photographer. If the interaction between human beings were my main interest, I would find a different form.” With this, Lutter makes clear her intentions as a photographer. She utilizes a unique form, the camera obscura, in order to capture distinct subject matter through an unusual perspective.
- - Jessica Greenberg
Vera Lutter, Ca del Duca, Venice, XA: December 8, 2007
