Library I
Casebere’s dramatically lit photographs of tabletop sculptures (made from plaster, Styrofoam, and cardboard) show uncannily familiar yet eerily inhuman spaces—from courtrooms and libraries to an empty storefront or a suburban street at night—that belong to everyone and to no one, a ghost world of collective memory. Using the camera to question photography’s cherished myths of documentary veracity and transparent objectivity, Casebere is a pioneer of constructed photography. Library I is among the best of the artist’s early works showing institutional spaces and has a particularly beautiful raking light (from an unseen source) that suggests coming upon the space as if it were a pharaoh’s tomb.
Artwork Details
- Title: Library I
- Artist: James Casebere (American, born 1953)
- Date: 1980
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 38 x 48 cm (14 15/16 x 18 7/8 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of The Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection, 2008
- Object Number: 2008.556
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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