Henry Lopez Reviews Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall was born in 1946 in Vancouver, Canada.  His style of photographic work seems to vary between the years, but he continues to create images that are carefully detailed and thoroughly thought out.  A signature artistic choice of his is to make his work very large, equaling that of grand paintings and sometimes utilizing a light box.  He tends to create scenes that are inspired by the things he's seen, read or heard, whether that be something from the real world or that of dreams.  

The majority of his works appear to feature the figure or multiple figures although he has not shied away from doing some still life work.  The work that attracts myself though is the narrative work with the performers.  He photographs compositions at times that look like a documentation of a moment and at others a completely cinematic and over the top.  Like a few other narrative photographers he captures these scenes as they are in transition.  When it comes down to it, Wall just recreates, re-purposes, and improves the world through his photographs.