David T. Hanson
David T. Hanson’s work has many parallels that I can I see with my own. When looking through his portfolio of images I noticed that he has a focus on urban landscapes. He also incorporates aerial shots and maps. The aerial shots often show the pathways that have been cut into the earth through the impact of man. My project is about the impact of man on objects and the environment in which they reside. Wendell Berry comments on David Hanson’s work “They are representations of bad art—if by art we mean the ways and products of human work [1].” I agree with Berry’s statement, Hanson’s work is certainly artwork of people working creating sculptures without the intention of making artwork. This is one aspect of his work I feel a real connection with. When I am shooting, I must find intriguing ways to light and create pleasing images out of what people have decided to discard. It’s a-lot about what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future. This cycle is endless: things decay, so humans discard and replace these items, which in turn will also eventually decay, restarting the cycle.Suzi Gablik said that Hanson’s work has “the most powerful and disturbing images ever to be seen, perhaps because their eerie, abstract beauty almost seems to negate the sinister, hidden life which glimmers in them: landscape as Eros transformed into landscape as Thanatos [2].” I have gotten comments that my project seems to have a secluded, kind-of sad nature to it. It’s not without effort . I feel that my mix of cinematic style lighting with some ambient lighting brings the most attention to the object to help tell it’s tale. For the most part this is the end of the object and I want people to think about it in that way.
[1] Berry, Wendell. "David T Hanson | Critical Quotes." David T. Hanson. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. <http://davidthanson.net/quotes.html>.
[2] Gablik, Suzi . "David T Hanson | Critical Quotes." David T. Hanson. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. <http://davidthanson.net/quotes.html>.
Biography -
David T. Hanson was born and raised in Montana, and was awarded a B.A. in English Literature from Stanford University. He studied with and worked as an assistant to Minor White and Frederick Sommer, and earned an M.F.A. in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design. A photographer, mixed-media installation artist, writer and teacher, he taught in the departments of Photography and Landscape Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design from 1983-2000. He has received a number of awards for his work, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1985) and two National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowships (1986 and 1994). One of Hanson’s aerial views of Colstrip, Montana was selected by The New York Times’ photography critic Vicki Goldberg as one of the 100 most important photographs of the 20th century. Hanson’s work is in the permanent collections of major museums throughout the world, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. His work has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Hanson’s photographs have been included in multiple exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York (five shows), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (three shows), and The Art Institute of Chicago (three shows, including a solo exhibition). In 1997, Aperture published a monograph of Hanson’s photographic work, Waste Land: Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape. Hanson’s work was recently included in Picturing Modernity: The Photography Collection at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the major exhibition (with full catalogue) Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS:
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Canadian Centre for Architecture, New York, New York
Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana
Hanson, David . "David T Hanson | Bio." David T. Hanson. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2010. <http://davidthanson.net/bio.html>.
Artist’s Website - http://davidthanson.net
Interview with the Artist -
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