Australian Pines, Fort DeSoto, Florida, 1977 © John Pfahl
Saturday I toured a number of current exhibitions in Chelsea and was lucky to catch the final day of When Color Was New: Vintage Photographs From Around the 1970s at Julie Saul Gallery. The show featured quite a few iconic images from Sternfeld, Goldin and Eggleston, but the work of John Pfahl really stood out. I had forgotten how much I loved John Pfahl's Altered Landscape series. 
Triangle, Bermuda, 1975 © John Pfahl
John made this series in the 1970s, but the images feel very contemporary because this style of photography is in vogue with the new wave of snapshot youth. But where many young photographers only go as deep as the ironic juxtaposition of an object in an environment, John's interventions manage to weave the primal simplicity of the Lascaux drawings with a playful complexity that reveals an intelligence very much of this time. 
Wave, Lave, Lace, Pescadero Beach, California, 1978 © John Pfahl
I love the way these photos play with space. John has created images that at once seem flat and two dimensional and then suddenly reveal a depth that is expansive as the ocean itself. Truly ahead of its time. 
Moonrise over Pie Pan, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, 1977 © John Pfahl
Labels: John Pfahl
7 Comments:
Hi Amy -
maybe you would like Georges Rousse as well ? There is certainly a link with what Pfahl was doing, though it is very different work.
You can see the final works if you click to "project durham" then "media"
http://www.rousseprojectdurham.com/
Robert Phillips
These are nice. Like Georges Rousse, certainly, but also a lot like Andy Goldsworthy; wonder if he was aware of them? Anyway, thanks for putting them up.
I believe Altered Landscapes predates Rousse and Goldsworthy by a few years.
i was just looking at his work the other day... in an old copy of PHotography Year 1979 --by Time Life Books.
i too had forgotten about his work and its brilliance.
would love to see actual prints someday.
I'm a big fan of this work. While the early 80's Altered Landscapes book is OK and can be picked up for 10 bucks, the bigger survey published by UNM called A Distanced Land is the one to get. - JR
John Pfahl's Altered Landscapes series, as well as the work of Eggleston and Sternfeld, has been a huge source of inspiration for me.
I'm jealous that you got to see their work in person!
This reminds me of those sculptors in the 70's who created massive sized earthworks for their art. Can't remember their names, but I think one of them surrounded a load of islands somewehere with pink plastic.
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