Chicago, like many urban centers throughout the world, has recently undergone a surge in new construction, grafting a new layer of architectural experimentation onto those of past eras. In early 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Photography' with the support of U.S. Equities Realty, invited Michael Wolf as an artist-in-residence. Bringing his unique perspective on changing urban environments to a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, focusing specifically on issues of ...
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Chicago, like many urban centers throughout the world, has recently undergone a surge in new construction, grafting a new layer of architectural experimentation onto those of past eras. In early 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Photography' with the support of U.S. Equities Realty, invited Michael Wolf as an artist-in-residence. Bringing his unique perspective on changing urban environments to a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, focusing specifically on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. This is Wolf's first body of work to address an American city. Whereas prior series have juxtaposed humanizing details within the surrounding geometry of the urban landscape, in The Transparent City, his details are fragments of life-digitally distorted and hyper-enlarged-snatched surreptitiously via telephoto lenses: Edward Hopper meets Blade Runner. The material resonates with all the formalism of the constructed, architectonic work for which Wolf is well-known, but also emphasizes the conceptual underpinnings of his ongoing engagement with the idea of how modern life unfolds within the framework of the ever-growing contemporary city.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in a Very Good dust jacket; Hardcover; Stated First Edition; Number line, Äú10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1"; Dust jacket is clean and intact with no tears, and has not been price-clipped (Now fitted with a new, Brodart jacket protector); Light wear to the boards; The textblock edges are unblemished; The endpapers and all text pages are clean and unmarked; The binding is excellent with a straight spine; This book will be shipped in a sturdy cardboard box with foam padding; Extra-Large Format (Folio, 14"-16" tall); 3.1 lbs; Photo of skyscraper windows to dust jacket, and title in black lettering on white background; 2008, Aperture/MoCP Publishing; 112 pages; "Michael Wolf: The Transparent City, " by Geoff Manaugh & Natasha Egan.
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Seller's Description:
Good. The celebrated photographer captures Chicago's changing urban environment in a series of cityscape images focusing on the central downtown area. Zusatzinfo Illustrated in colour throughout Chicago, like many urban centers throughout the world, has recently undergone a surge in new construction, grafting a new layer of architectural experimentation onto those of past eras. In early 2007, the Museum of Contemporary Photography with the support of U.S. Equities Realty, invited Michael Wolf as an artist-in-residence. Bringing his unique perspective on changing urban environments to a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, focusing specifically on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. This is Wolfs first body of work to address an American city. Whereas prior series have juxtaposed humanizing details within the surrounding geometry of the urban landscape, in "The Transparent City", his details are fragments of lifedigitally distorted and hyper-enlargedsnatched surreptitiously via telephoto lenses: Edward Hopper meets Blade Runner. The material resonates with all the formalism of the constructed, architectonic work for which Wolf is well-known, but also emphasizes the conceptual underpinnings of his ongoing engagement with the idea of how modern life unfolds within the framework of the ever-growing contemporary city. The thirty-nine cityscape photos in the book, when you first look at them, might seem sort of dull. Several show only the front of buildings at dusk and others, taken in the late afternoon darkness, show an office environment with people at their desks. Keep looking though and a whole kaleidoscope of shapes and pictures within pictures start to emerge. Wolf, by zooming into buildings and not showing the roof or the street, concentrates on lines of lit windows and the building structure to create a dazzling effect. It all seems visually obvious but I wonder if Chicago has the only core of contemporary office blocks where this type of photo could be taken? I recently reviewed 'New York vertigo' (ISBN 978 0810995116) by French photographer Michel Setboun which has some slightly similar night shots of Manhattan but lack the creative vision that Wolf has displayed in his amazing photos. Remarkable though the work is I was rather disappointed by some of the book's editorial judgment. There are twenty-three highly enlarged and therefore very pixilated photos of activity seen through the windows. They occupy twenty-four pages and to my mind contribute nothing to the overall feel of the building photos. The first twelve pages have seven of them virtually blank except for a few words in display type. The page numbers are laid sideways which means that a short black line has to be used to indicate a six from a nine, many pages have no numbers because the photos extend past the page margins (but don't bleed off the page) all this is just designer whimsy and is no help to the reader. I think it's unfortunate that the publishers have rather diluted the impact of Wolf's great photos with some amateurish editorial ideas. If you have ever been on a fairly high floor in a downtown high-rise office building, apartment/condo complex, or hotel, and looked out the window at night at the other buildings across the way, you will know first-hand what this book is all about. The only difference between you and German photographer Michael Wolf is that while you were in a nice warm room he was out on rooftops and parking lot top-levels freezing his butt off-he took most of the pictures in Nov-Dec in windy Chicago to get the early darkness. (You can actually see remnants of snow in one or two pictures. ) The main images are all fundamentally architectural, taken with a camera with movements or with a lens with movements that give perfect precision to the vertical and horizontal lines. Some images are pure minimalist planes, some show...
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New. 1597110760. *** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request ***-*** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT-Flawless copy, brand new, pristine, never opened--Text in English.112 pp. With 66 col. Ills. 35 x 28 cm. --with a bonus offer--
