Gray's Lake, ID 2 (Primary Title)
from the series Lakes and Reservoirs (Series Title)
Matthew Brandt, American, born 1982 (Artist)
I was interested in using the subject’s fluid to make its own image. It was about the interaction between the subject and the photograph. . . . . That is a theme in a lot of my work. —Matthew Brandt
Gray’s Lake, ID 2 belongs to Brandt’s Lakes and Reservoirs series, for which he soaks his large-scale photographs in water drawn from the depicted subject. The immersion—lasting from days to weeks—degrades the emulsion, introducing a variety of abstract shapes and patterns. This image shows a small body of water in Idaho near Grand Teton National Park. Although one of the few black-and-white photographs in the series, it reveals a surprising range of colors beneath the eroded gray-scale surface. Brandt disrupts the usual reading of the photographic image in order to draw attention to its physical qualities, creating a tension between illusory space and palpable surface.
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