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PUBLISHER
Aperture

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 12 x 11.5 in. / 108 pgs / 52 duotone.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
No longer our product

DISTRIBUTION
Contact Publisher
Catalog:

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9781597111324 TRADE
List Price: $65.00 CAD $75.00

AVAILABILITY
Not Available

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Washington D.C.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, 08/27/10-01/17/11

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APERTURE

John Gossage: The Pond

Text by Gerry Badger, Toby Jurovics.

John Gossage: The PondConsidered a groundbreaking book when first published in 1985, John Gossage's The Pond remains one of the most important photobooks of the medium. As Gerry Badger, coauthor of The Photobook: A History, Volumes I and II, asserts, "Adams, Shore, Baltz--all the New Topographics photographers made great books, but none are better than The Pond." Consisting of photographs taken around and away from a pond situated in an unkempt wooded area at the edge of a city, the volume presents a considered foil to Henry Thoreau's stay at Walden. The photographs in The Pond do not aspire to the "beauty" of classical landscapes in the tradition of Ansel Adams. Instead, they reveal a subtle vision of reality on the border between man and nature. Gossage depicts nature in full splendor, yet at odds with both itself and man, but his tone is ambiguous and evocative rather than didactic. Robert Adams described the work as "believable because it includes evidence of man's darkness of spirit, memorable because of the intense fondness [Gossage] shows for the remains of the natural world." Aperture now reissues this exquisitely produced and highly collectible classic monograph. With the addition of three images and two essays, this second edition offers new audiences the opportunity to celebrate this notable work by a master photographer and bookmaker.
John Gossage (born 1946) is well known for his artist's books and photographic publications, and has produced 17 books and boxes on specific bodies of work. In the 1960s, he studied briefly with Lisette Model and Alexey Brodovitch. Since then, his work has been exhibited worldwide. His photographs are held in numerous private and public collections, including those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gossage lives in Washington, D.C.

Featured image is from John Gossage: The Pond.

John Gossage: The Pond

FROM THE BOOK
"Its subject is not place-specific--indeed it is specifically about non-place, the interface between city and country sometimes known as terrain vague--but Gossage made most of the book's pictures where the District of Columbia conurbation creeps into Maryland…Unlike many contemporary photographers, who distil their imagery in the search for an easily recognizable style, Gossage utilizes a wide variety of expression in his work, and The Pond is no exception. Gossage's visual signature is subtle, and derives from mood as much as visual determination…The photographs make their points by suggestion rather than outright declaration…The metaphors are obvious, but Gossage's masterly composition turns an apparently simple photograph into one brimming with unease, confrontation, and a barely suppressed violence…The Pond presents itself as one of the most literary photobooks, beginning with its title… At root, The Pond is about place, but what kind of place? Whether it is a meditation upon the kind of environment our careless stewardship of nature has created or whether Gossage has conjured up a place of nightmarish imagination is always in doubt. The book's uncertainties are its only certainty…I admit to having become slightly obsessed with The Pond, because it seems to me to be one of the most perfect photobooks we have."

Gerry Badger, excerpted from his text to The Pond.

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