Yesterday, we had a preview of the new featured exhibition American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabuagh. Keith F. Davis, curator of photography, walked us through the exhibition which consists of 85 photographs, one of the cameras used by Sinsabaugh and a resource area with books and a looping video about the artist.
Davis described Sinsabaugh as a truly unique artist. No one else worked as he worked therefore his prints are extremely rare. Sinsabaugh used a big camera to make small to moderate sized pictures. The camera produced a 12 x 20 inch negative but Sinsabaugh chose to crop his pictures, some as small as 1 inch in height. He maintained the full width of 20 inches in most of his pictures, emphasizing the narrative qualities of his work. Davis compared them to horizontal Chinese scrolls in that they are delicated and packed with details. You have to slow down and get up close to appreciate them completely.
As I followed the group through the galleries, I began to notice more and more in each image. One that I particularly liked is Chicago Landscape #298 from 1966. If you look carefully, you'll notice a tiny house smack dab in the middle of these urban high rises. I love the way the buildings frame the house as if the high rises were intentionally built around it. I also love that if you do notice the house, its like some secret message is revealed. Davis explained that while Sinsabugh was capturing many ideas in his work incluiding the progression of the landscape from rural to urban and the "use it and throw it away" mentality of America, he quite often chose to focus on something completely human.