[16 Aerial Views of Houses from the "Night Sun" Series]
Best known as a painter of panoramic landscapes and vast domed interiors, Deutsch began photographing seriously in the early 1990s, concentrating on landscapes viewed from the windows of trains and airplanes. All the photographs in his extensive Night Sun series are aerial images shot at night from a helicopter hovering some four hundred feet above the ground. A Los Angeles native, Deutsch surveyed the city's vast suburban sprawl, illuminating the ubiquitous flat-roofed bungalows and faux-Spanish villas with a bright police searchlight.
The photographs-devoid of people-have the grainy, high-contrast look of film noir, evoking a mood that is simultaneously mysterious and banal. Details emerge from the shadows like clues to an unsolved crime: a car parked at an odd angle, an abandoned bicycle, a coiled garden hose. Adapting the techniques of police surveillance to artistic ends, Deutsch imbues the suburban landscape with a subtle sense of foreboding, an intimation of the dark corners of the American dream.
The photographs-devoid of people-have the grainy, high-contrast look of film noir, evoking a mood that is simultaneously mysterious and banal. Details emerge from the shadows like clues to an unsolved crime: a car parked at an odd angle, an abandoned bicycle, a coiled garden hose. Adapting the techniques of police surveillance to artistic ends, Deutsch imbues the suburban landscape with a subtle sense of foreboding, an intimation of the dark corners of the American dream.
Artwork Details
- Title: [16 Aerial Views of Houses from the "Night Sun" Series]
- Artist: David Deutsch (American, born 1943)
- Date: 2000
- Medium: Gelatin silver prints
- Dimensions: 25 x 33.2 cm (9 13/16 x 13 1/16 in. ) each
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Rebecca Abrams and Nathan Benn Gift and funds from various donors, 2001
- Object Number: 2001.277.1–.16
- Rights and Reproduction: © David Deutsch
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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