Fine-art
photographer Lynn Saville specializes in photographing at twilight and dawn, or as she describes it, "the boundary times
between night and day". Her photographs are published in two
monographs: Acquainted With the Night (Rizzoli, 1997) and Night/Shift
(Random House/Monacelli, 2009). She is represented by Yancey Richardson
Gallery in New York and is included in many major permanent collections.
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| Street Corner - Brooklyn |
Lynn roams, what she terms, “limbo regions”, places
she believes to be one
of our last frontiers. Spaces that seem unloved and overlooked, cracks in the
urban façade. In Lynn’s own words: “When I discover a site that attracts me, I
return to it at dusk. In this liminal period, natural light gives way to
streetlight, moonlight, and window light, as well as advertisement and
surveillance lighting.”
Several
years ago Lynn was lured back to the central areas of NYC, where
economic turmoil produced its own gaps in the façade - vacant stores whose
glowing windows in which she saw a resemblance to a Rothko painting. Her latest
series, Vacancy: The Disquieting
Beauty of Emptiness, began
as a response to the effects of The Great Recession, and the pictures capture
shuttered stores and abandoned spaces, seen at transitional hours.
So
how would Lynn interpret kate, we wondered? Was kate a “disquieting beauty”
too?
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| Lynn Saville's The Terrace Bridge + Kate, 2014 |
iskm: What did you do to your chosen kate moss image and
why?
Lynn Saville (LS): I wanted to create a
photograph in which her image engages in a quiet and timeless way. I took a
tiny portion of a picture I had taken of Kate Moss glowing at twilight and transferred
it electronically to my portable projector. I then brought the projector with
me as I visited some of my special locations.
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| Lynn's source image of a billboard in NOLITA |
iskm: How/why did you select the source image that
you did?
LS: I was fascinated with a billboard image of Kate near a gas
station in NOLITA. I liked the
way she looked out over Houston Street and the fact that she was reclining gave her direct and open
gaze a sense of curiosity and intimacy. I also liked that it was a black and white image, as I primarily work in color. Given how I
was planning on creating my submission, this source image would then contrast with the
place I decided to take the final photograph.
iskm: Why did you feel the need to project the image
rather than simply work with an established picture of kate?
LS: I feel that in a sense Kate cultural/fashion
presence lingers in my imagination even when I'm in spaces I photograph.
I felt it would be interesting to experiment with projecting a part of her
image in a place one wouldn't ordinarily actually see it.
iskm: How and why did you choose the location that you did? Is it a church
or a synagogue?
LS: The place I chose was under the Terrace Bridge in Central Park. The
arcade reminds me of the Alhambra in Spain ... Olmsted and Vaux combined
Moorish, Romanesque and Classical influences ... the place is almost religious
in its meditative spirit. I wanted to show the timeless quality of Kate's
gaze in an unlikely urban setting and to show that in today's culture,
advertising media seems to be everywhere.
iskm: How do you feel your approach to photography/art making affected
your submission to ishotkatemoss?
LS: I have been experimenting with including
a figure or silhouette in my vacant urban landscape photographs. In the
past, a figure would unexpectedly intrude into my long exposure photograph when
a person would walk through the frame. I discovered that these ghostly
intrusions often added a poignant dimension to the image. Recently I began projecting a figure or face
into the space I photograph so as to be able to have more control and because
I feel that projections communicate a special importance from a culturally
historic perspective (such as slide shows and drive-in movies). I consider the projection as my own
enlarged screen or smaller billboard when used in a public place.
iskm: That is really interesting. Do you see the projected image playing
a new cultural role?
LS: We carry
around our smartphones and tablets so we are viewing our small screens
everywhere these days. We are therefore viewing personal, as well as
commercial, messages in public spaces. I'm using the projected image to
add a new size and dimension to the ‘portability’ of the image as I move the
image into a new place. It's almost a brief ‘tagging’ of a public
space with my idea. Now, after using a picture of Kate in this
way, I realize that I am also referencing the surprise of an unexpected view of
a commercial image. These images are everywhere, intruding on our
landscape and popping up on our computers so I'm gaining a sense of power by
putting it out there, where I want to see it, at least for a brief time.
iskm: Which photographer/s would you most want to most see involved in
ishotkatemoss?
LS: Jeff Wall, Thomas Struth and Gursky - all are iconic artists working in
photography at this moment in time. I feel that their "take" on
culture and landscape photography would be interesting to view in the context
of ishotkatemoss.
iskm: Thanks so much Lynn. We are so
incredibly thankful for your involvement.
LS: My pleasure. The iskm concept is fascinating from a variety of
perspectives. I liked the challenge of working with an icon like Kate Moss
when I usually think about icons like the Flatiron Building. The urban
landscape has many images of Kate Moss so it is natural to think of her image
in cityscape photographs!
More information about Lynn’s work can be found at www.lynnsaville.com and keep an eye out
for the monograph of her latest project,
Vacancy, which will be published by the distinguished Italian press Damiani, in
the fall of 2015.
And
just like Lynn walking through NYC at dusk or dawn ... Observe. Slow Down. Shoot. Submit.
