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Home>The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art>Framing Time and Place

# 

Introduction

Traces of History

Time Exposed

Memory and the Archive

Framing Time and Place

Contemporary Ruins

Sarah GreenoughSenior Curator and Head, Department of PhotographsNational Gallery of Art, WashingtonAndrea NelsonAssociate Curator, Department of PhotographsNational Gallery of Art, Washington

2015 Events

Press Release

Exhibition Checklist

Overview

View All Photographs

Celebrating Twenty-five Years of the Department of Photographs

*The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art* Sarah Greenough and Andrea Nelson, with Sarah Kennel, Diane Waggoner, and Leslie J. Ureña

# Framing Time and Place

The artists in this section—Idris Khan, Andrew Moore, Mark Ruwedel, and Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse—examine how photographs can vividly bring the past into the present through the depiction of landscapes and urban views. They explore sites where the natural and built environment evince the march of time, looking to places as diverse as abandoned railroad lines in the American West, neglected buildings in the Midwest, historic landmarks in London, and a skyscraper in post-apartheid Johannesburg. As they wrestle with a medium whose truthfulness is now in doubt, these artists have adopted a slow, methodical practice, often exhaustively studying and recording their subject, sometimes spending years and even decades doing so. Using repetition and grid formats to bolster their impact, they convey the elusiveness and changeability of a place over time.

 

Framing Time and Place
**Idris Khan**, British, born 1978, *Houses of Parliament, London*, 2012, digital silver bromide print, 76.2 × 101.6 cm (30 × 40 in.), © Idris Khan, 2012.30.1

Commissioned by the *New York Times Magazine* to celebrate the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, Khan created this layered  depiction of the Houses of Parliament by digitally combining dozens of postcards and stock photographs of the landmark. Deliberately  choosing views from varying perspectives, he eliminated distracting elements to render the essence of the iconic stone architecture, transforming it into a less recognizable, diaphanous version of itself. Weaving together clichéd, static pictures, he created an expressive, shimmering photograph.  

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, American, born 1954, *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1994–2007, 12 gelatin silver prints, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**,*****Carson and Colorado #6* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1997, gelatin silver print, 19 × 24.1 cm (7 1⁄2 × 9 1⁄2 in.), Gift of Dan and Jeanne Fauci, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.112.1

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Utah Southern Extension #4* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 2001, gelatin silver print, 18.8 × 24.4 cm (7 3/8 × 9 5/8 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.12

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Tecopa #1* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1996, gelatin silver print, 18.8 × 24.2 cm (7 3/8 × 9 1⁄2 in.), Gift of Peter T. Barbur, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.103.1

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Death Valley #1* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1995, gelatin silver print, 19 × 24.4 cm (7 1⁄2 × 9 5/8 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.7

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Union Pacific #20* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1996, gelatin silver print, 19.3 × 24.1 cm (7 5/8 × 9 1⁄2 in.), Gift of Gregory and Aline Gooding, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.104.1

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Canadian Pacific #3* from*Westward the Course of Empire*, 2000, gelatin silver print, 19.4 × 24.1 cm (7 5/8 × 9 1⁄2 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.6

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Oregon California and Eastern #1* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1998, gelatin silver print, 18.8 × 24.1 cm (7 3/8 × 9 1⁄2 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.10

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Central Pacific #18* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1999, gelatin silver print, 18.9 × 24.2 cm (7 7/16 × 9 1⁄2 in.), Gift of Peter T. Barbur, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.103.2

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Nevada Central #4* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1999, gelatin silver print, 19 × 24.4 cm (7 1⁄2 × 9 5/8 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.9

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Mohave and Milltown #3*from *Westward the Course of Empir*e, 2004, gelatin silver print, 19 × 24.2 cm (7 1⁄2 × 9 1⁄2 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.8

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Nevada Short Line #1* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1998, gelatin silver print, 19.1 × 24.3 cm (7 1⁄2 × 9 9/16 in.), Gift of Dan and Jeanne Fauci, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.112.2

Framing Time and Place
**Mark Ruwedel**, *Silver Peak #1* from *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1999, gelatin silver print, 18.8 × 24.1 cm (7 3/8 × 9 1⁄2 in.), © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, 2012.47.11

Framing Time and Place
**Andrew Moore**, American, born 1957, *Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana*, 2008, inkjet print, 91.44 × 115.57 cm (36 × 45 1⁄2 in.), 2014.32.2

Moore photographs places that have undergone accelerated cycles of growth and decay, due to political, economic, or social upheaval. *Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana* documents the wreckage of a 1925 art deco theater that closed some five decades later as the city faced an economic downturn and increased crime. The photograph contrasts the theater’s ornate promises of fantasy and escape with its harsh financial realities. 

Framing Time and Place
**Andrew Moor**e, American, born 1957, *Model T Headquarters, Highland Park, Michigan*, 2009, inkjet print, 91.44 × 115.57 cm (36 × 45 1⁄2 in.), 2014.32.1

*Model T Headquarters, Highland Park, Michigan* shows an abandoned executive suite at the Ford Company’s Highland Park plant, which closed in the mid-1970s after operations shifted to other sites. Against a backdrop of dated and dingy wood paneling, the original flooring has been supplanted by a carpet of green moss, its emerald hue providing unexpected beauty in the midst of decay.  

Framing Time and Place
**Mikhael Subotzky**, South African, born 1981, **Patrick Waterhouse**, British, born 1981, *Doors, Ponte City, Johannesburg*, 2008–2010, light box with color transparency, 388 × 128.4 × 15.24 cm (152 3⁄4 × 50 1⁄2 × 6 in.)

Ponte City, a soaring, cylindrical apartment building in Johannesburg, South Africa, completed in 1975, was initially marketed to whites only. With the dismantling of apartheid in the early 1990s and the flight of whites to the suburbs, Ponte City fell into disrepair, becoming an emblem of urban decay. In 2008 Subotzky and Waterhouse began to document the site, photographing its apartments, the occupants, and their televisions. They then created large color transparencies with rows of pictures to mimic the height and layout of the building, sequencing the photographs apartment by apartment, floor by floor. The cascade of pictures presents the building, as the artists have asserted, as “a place of dust and dreams, befitting the land on which it sits.” 

View an image of the building:Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, *Blue Ponte/Red Ponte VI*, 2011, inkjet print on semi-matte paper, Courtesy Goodman Gallery

Framing Time and Place
Detail from Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, *Doors, Ponte City, Johannesburg*, 2008–2010, light box with color transparency

Framing Time and Place
**Mikhael Subotzky**, South African, born 1981, **Patrick Waterhouse**, British, born 1981, *Televisions, Ponte City, Johannesburg*, 2008–2010, light box with color transparency, 388 × 128.4 × 15.24 cm (152 3⁄4 × 50 1⁄2 × 6 in.)

Framing Time and Place
Detail from Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse,*Televisions, Ponte City, Johannesburg*, 2008–2010, light box with color transparency

 

Next: Contemporary Ruins

Banner image: Detail from **Mark Ruwedel**, *Westward the Course of Empire*, 1994–2007, gelatin silver prints, © Mark Ruwedel, courtesy of Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica

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