Samples of Grid Images: Jules Spinatsch and Stu Levy

From the exhibit The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, and the Photobook

Jules Spinatsch. Panorama: World Economic Forum, Davos 2003. Camera A, Congress-Center North and Middle Entry, 2176 Still Shots, 24.01.03, 06h35-09h30. Hotspots: World Economic Forum, Davos. Hotspot A4.1, Promenade; Hotspot A1.1, North and Middle Entry; Hotspot A2/3/5/6.1, Parking, Congress Hotel, Carlton, Congress Center. 2003

This installation documents the preparations for the January 2003 World Economic Forum, in which the entire valley of Davos, Switzerland, was temporarily transformed into a high-security zone. In the period leading up to the forum, Spinatsch installed three remote-controlled cameras outside different buildings. One was programmed to record up to 2,500 images over three hours, from 6:35 to 9:30 a.m., while slowly rotating vertically and horizontally. Spinatsch assembled the shots in a high-resolution panorama that shows random moments captured frame by frame as well as the transition from dawn to early morning. Instead of a photojournalistic account of the event, the artist presents the leadup to the forum, revealed as meticulously planned and tightly controlled.

Pigmented inkjet print, 7' 2 5/8" x 18' 4 1/2" (220 x 560 cm), and 3 videos (color, silent), 7:28 min. each. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

http://jules-spinatsch.ch/

http://www.stulevyphoto.com/

   My photographs often involve fragile landscapes in which I feel a sense of timelessness. The landscape, however, is only my stimulus or point of departure. I ask the question, "What else is the landscape," and it is the "what else" that I try to photograph.

   I also create "Grid-Portraits" of artists and craftsmen. Using several images contact printed together, a space and time scan is made of the subjects in their environments. In addition, references are made to the making of the photograph and to my own interaction with the subjects as I explore the process of perception and visual synthesis. A monograph has been published by Nazraeli Press.

   In 1995 I printed 82 vintage Minor White negatives of two Victorian houses for the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum and for publication in the book "Heritage Lost", published by the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Art Museum.