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Library I

1980
Not on view
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

Object Information
  • 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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