J Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With David Campany
“Photographs show — they do not explain.”
Episode #69, Summary
This elegant book compiles Robert Cumming’s hand-selected fabricated photographs destined for his Large Print Project — here brought to elegant fruition in the able hands of writer and curator David Campany, with exceptional printing by publisher Stanley Barker Books.
Episode Notes
David Campany pays tribute to the multi-disciplinarian artist Robert Cumming, known for his rigorous dedication to the aesthetic tonality of the B&W image and his uncanny investigations into the philosophical nature of perception. Lusciously printed images from original 8x10 negatives are evidence of Cumming’s masterful camera work, conveying his fascination with photography’s ability to simultaneously describe and mislead. David Campany's equal sensibilities are evident in an erudite, witty essay and compelling image sequence.
In this conversation, David discusses, among other things:
Nonsense & Sensibility
Chicanery & wit
Craft and camera work
Fluid interchange of media
Transition of an object into an image
Looking at work in the round
Not getting pigeonholed
Specialism
Modernist Ideals
Thinking of scale
Landing in the middle
Viewers response to the work provides its meaning
All you can do with a watermelon
Referenced in the episode:
Difficulties of Nonsense in Conversation with Sarah Bay Gachot
Robert Cumming: Large Prints Gallery Luisotti
Creative Spaces: The Photographers Studio as Inspiration, Boston MFA
Mirrors and Windows at MoMA, New York
2019 Robert Cumming: The Secret Life of Objects, opened at the George Eastman Museum
Contemporary Conceptual Artists:
Cumming’s Contemporaries: