Ruins

Installation view of The Sun, 1957 from Sun Ruins

Hello from the West Coast! In honor of the final week of my show, Sun Ruins at Golden Gallery in New York, I'm posting my favorite heart-breaker of ruination: photographer Carleton Watkins (pictured with cane) being led away from his studio in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The contents of his studio were destroyed.


This image is from the Bancroft Library Archive at the University of California, Berkeley. More of their San Francisco Earthquake and Fire images can be found here.

Thankfully, this gem wasn't destroyed:

Section of the Grizzly Giant, 33 Feet Diameter, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite, No. 111, Albumen silver print, 17 x 20 1/2 in.

From the Getty: "Galen Clark, the figure in this photograph, was designated as the guardian of the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia about the time Abraham Lincoln ceded it to California in 1864. When this picture was made, Clark lived in a cabin (not pictured) nearby and maintained a rustic way station for visitors traveling to Yosemite Valley via the Mariposa Trail, which was developed in 1859. "

Click here for the Getty's online archive of Carleton Watkins photographs.

frank J. thomas

a great collection of photographs by frank J. thomas of the los angelas art scene of the 60's . more of frank's work can be found here and here.

[ robert irwin : pat hogan : john coplans , melinda turbel , irving blum ( watching roy lichtenstein sign his billboard ) mel bochner ]

jim campbell

I first saw a work by jim campbell in 2001 at the bitstreams show at the whitney it was his picture of harry nyquist and it really stole the show. you have to kind of see them in person , because they function as much as a piece of sculpture or relief as it does an image. it is both. but the piece has stuck hard in my head ever since. if you get a chance to see one of his works in person or buy one one - do it.

more here

[ home movies, wave modulation, untitled (led explosion), 2010 - 1152 leds, custom electronics ]

john coplans

artforum founder and long-time editor john Coplans was quite a photographer. but that was just one of the many lives of John Coplans. more here and here