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Andrew Moore Answers Questions about Detroit DisassembledBarbara Tannenbaum, Director of Curatorial Affairs, interviewed artist Andrew Moore about his Detroit Disassembled exhibition currently showing at the Akron Art Museum. |
Barbara Tannenbaum: What led you to photograph in Detroit?
Andrew Moore: I initially discovered Detroit at the invitation of some young urban explorers who asked me to come along and shoot with them. Afterwards I was able to gain entry to other more inaccessible sites with the help of local businessmen. But many of the images were found simply by searching the city block by block.
BT: You spent around 3 months in Detroit. What was most surprising about shooting there?
AM: The most surprising aspect of Detroit is the amount and variety of abandoned buildings. The most important quality of Detroit is the richness of personal and cultural history that these sites contain.
BT: You are renowned for capturing and expressing the mood and feel of a place. How do you get to know a place?
AM: In Detroit, as with my other projects, I discover my subjects by scouring a city, both on foot and by car, in order to get a sense of its history and urban plan. I also work directly with locals who know the best places, although often times I take them to places they’ve never been.
I don’t do an extraordinary amount of research, in terms of reading, before I visit a place for the first time, as I really want to experience as city with fresh eyes on my initial visit. But afterwards, after I’ve gotten to know a place somewhat, then I’ll start looking at all kinds of material for insights and stories. In the case of Detroit, I looked at the AIA guidebook about the city, which was somewhat helpful, but what was actually very informative were some of the websites, such as BuildingsofDetroit.com, which are run by amateur historians of the city. Ultimately the research and picture-making go together, because as I revisit sites and location time after time until I feel that I’ve gotten it just right, I’m also carrying a bit more of the story I’m after in my mind.
BT: The color and light in your Detroit photographs are remarkable, especially given what the naked eye must see in many of the abandoned buildings. They endow these spaces with poignancy and emotion. How did you control and/or create light inside the abandoned buildings? How much, if any, alteration of color is done in the computer?
AM: I only use available light in my work, so often the exposures are very long, especially for the interiors. The long exposures and large format film gather a great deal of color information that is not available to the human eye. Scanning the developed film also brings out much of this hidden information. Lastly, color photography is relatively a young medium and I feel that many photographers depend on local color, rather than looking at the overall color of a scene. This overall color depends both on the quality of the light and how certain “sets” of color bond and create relationships across the picture plane. The emotional quality of my pictures comes from the way these “sets” play off each other. When I create my pictures, In my mind I am much more frequently referring to paintings and other works of art rather than to the limited history of color photography. As for the question of “alteration” of color in the computer, I’m always amused by this question, as the underlying assumption here is that there was a “real” color to begin with. But the simplest answer is no, the light makes the color, not the computer.
BT: Many of the images in Detroit Disassembled evoke for me the Romantic idea of the “sublime”—an enticing, exalting mix of horror and beauty. Were you consciously thinking about that visual and literary tradition while shooting in Detroit?
AM: There are many traditions of art I am drawing on when I set out to work. I am as much influenced by the works of Caspar David Friedrich as I am by 19th century American realism, which would include everyone from John Peto to Frederic Church to George Caleb Bingham, as well as many great works of 19th century photography. I am aware that images of ruins have a long history in Romantic painting, but as an American artist, I feel just as compelled by our history of realism, whether it is in the photographs of George Barnard or the paintings of Charles Sheeler.
* * *
Detroit Disassembled will show at the Akron Art Museum through Oct. 10. For more information, see http://www.akronartmuseum.org/exhibitions/.
Andrew Moore: I initially discovered Detroit at the invitation of some young urban explorers who asked me to come along and shoot with them. Afterwards I was able to gain entry to other more inaccessible sites with the help of local businessmen. But many of the images were found simply by searching the city block by block.
BT: You spent around 3 months in Detroit. What was most surprising about shooting there?
AM: The most surprising aspect of Detroit is the amount and variety of abandoned buildings. The most important quality of Detroit is the richness of personal and cultural history that these sites contain.
BT: You are renowned for capturing and expressing the mood and feel of a place. How do you get to know a place?
AM: In Detroit, as with my other projects, I discover my subjects by scouring a city, both on foot and by car, in order to get a sense of its history and urban plan. I also work directly with locals who know the best places, although often times I take them to places they’ve never been.
I don’t do an extraordinary amount of research, in terms of reading, before I visit a place for the first time, as I really want to experience as city with fresh eyes on my initial visit. But afterwards, after I’ve gotten to know a place somewhat, then I’ll start looking at all kinds of material for insights and stories. In the case of Detroit, I looked at the AIA guidebook about the city, which was somewhat helpful, but what was actually very informative were some of the websites, such as BuildingsofDetroit.com, which are run by amateur historians of the city. Ultimately the research and picture-making go together, because as I revisit sites and location time after time until I feel that I’ve gotten it just right, I’m also carrying a bit more of the story I’m after in my mind.
BT: The color and light in your Detroit photographs are remarkable, especially given what the naked eye must see in many of the abandoned buildings. They endow these spaces with poignancy and emotion. How did you control and/or create light inside the abandoned buildings? How much, if any, alteration of color is done in the computer?
AM: I only use available light in my work, so often the exposures are very long, especially for the interiors. The long exposures and large format film gather a great deal of color information that is not available to the human eye. Scanning the developed film also brings out much of this hidden information. Lastly, color photography is relatively a young medium and I feel that many photographers depend on local color, rather than looking at the overall color of a scene. This overall color depends both on the quality of the light and how certain “sets” of color bond and create relationships across the picture plane. The emotional quality of my pictures comes from the way these “sets” play off each other. When I create my pictures, In my mind I am much more frequently referring to paintings and other works of art rather than to the limited history of color photography. As for the question of “alteration” of color in the computer, I’m always amused by this question, as the underlying assumption here is that there was a “real” color to begin with. But the simplest answer is no, the light makes the color, not the computer.
BT: Many of the images in Detroit Disassembled evoke for me the Romantic idea of the “sublime”—an enticing, exalting mix of horror and beauty. Were you consciously thinking about that visual and literary tradition while shooting in Detroit?
AM: There are many traditions of art I am drawing on when I set out to work. I am as much influenced by the works of Caspar David Friedrich as I am by 19th century American realism, which would include everyone from John Peto to Frederic Church to George Caleb Bingham, as well as many great works of 19th century photography. I am aware that images of ruins have a long history in Romantic painting, but as an American artist, I feel just as compelled by our history of realism, whether it is in the photographs of George Barnard or the paintings of Charles Sheeler.
* * *
Detroit Disassembled will show at the Akron Art Museum through Oct. 10. For more information, see http://www.akronartmuseum.org/exhibitions/.
