Catherine Opie
Sunset #6
2009
C-print
35.5 × 28 cm
Edition of 50 copies, signed and numbered by the artist
This edition comes with Catherine Opie's 2010 publication Empty and Full
Out of stock
about this work
In the summer of 2009, Opie received a commission from Hanjin Shipping to create a work based on a journey on one of their ships. Opie boarded a container ship traveling from the Port of Busan, Korea to the Port of Long Beach. On the ship she photographed the sunrise and sunset each day for ten days and created the dramatically beautiful and painterly body of work entitled Twelve Miles to the Horizon. The title refers to the twelve mile distance between the artist and the horizon but more importantly evokes the notion of time, empty space and solitude. The twenty images on view here focus our aesthetic attention on the point where sky and water meet. In some the sun appears as an orange dot rising or disappearing into the distant horizon, in others it is not visible at all, rather the composition shifts from light to dark as in a color field painting. “The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset,” remarks Opie, “I wanted to play with that but also make something that was time-based. I like that time is marked by each sunrise and sunset whether or not you actually see it.”
(courtesy of Long Beach Museum of Art)
This edition is a photograph from this series. The full series of 20 images has been shown at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 2012.
about Catherine Opie
One of the defining artists of her generation, photographer Catherine Opie is known for her portraits and landscapes. She has frequently combined these two elements by training her camera on how people take possession of different landscapes—from high-school football players on the field or ice fishermen on frozen lakes, to surfers waiting for the next wave.
Opie recently returned to the genre of street photography, elaborating on the relationship between people and places. Her latest photographs present political demonstrations and gatherings—ranging from the inauguration of President Obama to Tea Party rallies. Drawing on the long and illustrious tradition of American landscape painting and documentary photography, like that of Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank, Opie affords us a look at democracy in action.
(Courtesy of Hatje Cantz)
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