Jenelle on Richard Misrach 10-03-09

Richard Misrach

Larry often shows slide images of various artists during class. Lately he’s been showing the class those artists who use the view camera; one of them was Richard Misrach. The images of the desert were taken in the 1970’s with a view camera and he used various split toning techniques to enhance his detailed B&W images. He used long exposure times at night in the desert along with strobe lighting techniques to get the results you see above. I read that even Misrach himself cannot reproduce these images. This is because in 1978 Agfa reduced the amount of silver in the film that Misrach was using and consequently he could not get the same results. The stark contrast in his images and the juxtaposition of each desert figure all printed with his split tone technique creates surreal landscapes. The use of the view camera gave clear detail that can only be given by large format cameras when shooting with film. Misrach continues to make photographs and recently exhibited in the Fraenkel Gallery early this year (January and February). Despite the beautiful detail given by his large format, he no longer uses film. Instead, his new work is digitally shot with a high tech digital camera that produces high quality detail. An added flip to his technique is the use of color instead of his stark B&W images of the 1970’s. He compiles positive and negative images that, along with the colorful tones, create the surreal landscapes that he is known for. If you google his name and fraenkel gallery you can see his new work. His older desert scenes are a little more difficult to find. Someone blogged about his work and had the image that I attached above. Or you can google image search his desert images because they’re awesome.