Vera Lutter: Inverted Worlds November 21, 2015–March 27, 2016
Vera Lutter, Clock Tower, Brooklyn, XI, June 1, 2009, 2009, unique gelatin silver print, collection of the artist, courtesy Baldwin Gallery. © Vera Lutter. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Vera Lutter, San Marco, Venice, XX: December 3, 2005, 2005, gelatin silver prints, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © Vera Lutter
Vera Lutter, Chrysler Building, IX, July 13, 2014, 2014, unique gelatin silver print, collection of Larry Gagosian. © Vera Lutter. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Vera Lutter, RHEINBRAUN, IX: August 30, 2006, 2006, gelatin silver prints, collection of Larry Gagosian. © Vera Lutter. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Vera Lutter, Radio Telescope, Effelsberg, XVII: September 16, 2013, 2013, gelatin silver prints, collection of the artist, courtesy Gagosian Gallery. © Vera Lutter. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Vera Lutter, Times Square, New York, V: July 31, 2007, 2007, gelatin silver print, collection of the artist, courtesy Gagosian Gallery. © Vera Lutter. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
The mysterious, monumental photographs in this exhibition are one-of-a-kind negative prints by New York–based German photographer Vera Lutter (born 1960). To create these large-scale images, she transforms a darkened room, shipping container, or specially constructed box into an enormous pinhole camera. The exposures can last for days, weeks, or months. Lutter retains the negative form as the final work—a literal reflection of space and time as determined by the immediate visual environment.
Inverted Worlds presents an eerie parallel universe: images that are tonally reversed, laterally mirrored, and devoid of people because of the long exposures. The subjects range from postindustrial ruins, to the visual cacophony of Times Square, to the serenity of Venetian canals.
At a time when analog negatives are disappearing from photographic practice and process, Lutter finds new magic in the traditional materials of her medium.
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Generous funding is provided by:
Gagosian Gallery
Joseph M. Cohen
Peter Josten and Sam Trower