Ashley Murch: Library Book

Jeff Wall is a photographer who has amazing photographs. A Lot of his pictures in his book Exposure are simple, and just of everyday life sort of stuff except they are a little odd. His pictures are dark or include lots of shadows. Jeff Wall was born in Canada in 1946. HIs most famous work came from between the time periods of late 70s to early 90s. In college he did experiment with art but did not make any art till 1977. Since the early 1990s, Wall has used digital technology to create montages of different individual negatives, blending them into what appears as a single unified photograph. His signature works are large transparencies mounted on light boxes; he says he conceived this format when he saw back-lit advertisements at bus stops during a trip between Spain and London. Overall his work is eye capturing to say the least. 

Looking at his art is so eye capturing, I love the mysterious and grungy vibe his work gives off. His pictures are all so unique but all fit so well together. In his book exposure my favorite piece is titled “Dawn”. Everything in the picture is so perfect. I love how you can sort of see that the sun is setting, so the sky is pink. I love how the picture seems like such an industrial area, but then there's just a huge rock on the corner. The rock is so out of place, but like most of Wall’s work the setting is so simple, and then there's a kind of random object sitting there, that doesn't exactly belong. I find this extremely interesting how he does this. The picture is so natural, and dirty which gives it life. The mystery of it is wondering what's down the alleyway. I love how he didn’t photograph straight down the alleyway, it would give to much away. So he instead photographed just the corner where you can sort of peak around, but this lets his viewers sit on the picture longer and really wonder what's going on. 

I truly enjoyed discovering the work of Jeff Wall and hope to spend more time looking at his work. He is an amazing artist and reading his story on how he got there was pretty amazing. I truly love his style, as well as the time period he produced most of his work. Jeff Wall is another amazing photographer who I can now learn and grow from.