Near Aspen, Colorado

Date1991

Credit LineGift of Sarit Rozycki and Robert Cromwell

Dimensions13 x 24 15/16 in. (33 x 63.3 cm)

Object number2003.067.037

Label TextSmith, a self-taught photographer, began working with a large format view camera early in his career. Captivated by the clarity and minute detail that can be obtained with contact prints, he continues to use view cameras, moving to larger formats when he wants to make larger images. In 1978 on a picture-taking trip through the American West, he began to use an 8 x 20 inch panoramic camera. At first puzzled about what kind of photographs to make in this new format, he found a book that represented bird songs via graphs showing the progression of notes and intervals across time. Smith realized that he wanted to make photographs "as beautiful as a bird song," and he began to look for similar all-over patterns in the landscape. In composing his pictures he had always been as concerned with the edges as with the center of the frame and had held a preference for a "dense and tangled" texture that would compel the viewer to scan the whole picture from end to end. Thus, the inspiration of bird song together with his interest in abstract form led Smith to create these new documents of the American landscape.
Exhibition HistoryThe Objective Eye: Photographs from the Rozycki-Cromwell Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, August 10, 2005 - January 15, 2006
Wondrous Transformations: Photographs by Michael A. Smith, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 16, 2010 - January 16, 2011
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, March - May 2004.

ProvenanceEx coll. Sarit Rozycki and Robert Cromwell, United States.

MarkingsWritten in graphite on mount verso, "82-9109-23/23 #29, Near Aspen Colorado, 1991."

Status

Not on view

Collections