LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART II  / 

180

SOPHIE CALLE (French, b. 1953) LES TOMBES (ORPHAN) editioned

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
SOPHIE CALLE (French, b. 1953) LES TOMBES (ORPHAN) editioned
SOPHIE CALLE (French, b. 1953) LES TOMBES (ORPHAN) editioned "25/25" in pencil on verso; signed "S. Calle" in black ink on verso gelatin silver print 18 3/4 x 12 3/4 in. (47.6 x 32.4 cm) 1990 this print is number 25 from an edition of 25 from the portfolio PORTRAITS, Printed Matter, NEW YORK, 1995 PROVENANCE Private Collection, NEW YORK In 1990, Sophie Calle photographed numerous gravestones in a California cemetery. Collectively known as Les Tombes, these images never refer to specific individuals, but instead bear the familial epitaphs of Mother, Father, Sister, and Brother. Perhaps the most poignant image in this series, the present work is inscribed with the word Orphan. As though rescuing her unknown subject from oblivion, Calle's photograph provides the barest evidence of a life once lived. Despite its anonymity, the present work asserts a remarkable physical presence. By shooting Les Tombes from above, Calle nearly fills each frame with a flat, rectangular slab of stone. Consequently, the photographs formally mimic their subjects, and recreate the experience of perusing plots in a cemetery. As Andy Grundberg has observed, "One has to suspect that the true subject of Les Tombes is not death but how death is represented. Calle's unadorned, straightforward photographs can be seen as part of a chain of representations that begins in complex human presence and ends in the gallery space where we, as viewers, struggle with the poverty of our aesthetic responses. Once again Calle, with a brilliant economy, has made us uneasy voyeurs" (Andy Grundberg, "Photography's Dark Side: The Work of Sophie Calle," CRISIS OF THE REAL: WRITINGS ON PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1974, New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 1999, p. 253).
Sign In to Bookmark Lot