EVE SONNEMAN: SIGHT/SOUND, an exhibition comprised of 7 color photographs will be on view at the Nohra Haime Gallery from December 8th through January 29th. These seminal works, previously exhibited in Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980, mark the artist's transition from black and white to color photography.
Known for pairing stills taken seconds apart, Sonneman creates unified visual narratives that expose the minute, yet captivating, moments in time.
Taking part in the controversial move to color photography in the mid-1970's, Sonneman shifted from black and white diptychs of daily social life to a more cinematic approach in her work. She began describing the colorful reality of life in her diptychs with shorter time spans between stills, much like the jump cut in film editing. She revealed the world through the eyes of a tourist, photographing famous landmarks in a way that showed the subtle changes of scenery with the blink of an eye. The result is a poetic dialogue on the randomness of humanity.
In Sight/Sound: for Mike Goldberg, Samos, Greece, 1977 (collection of Museum of Modern Art, NY and Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY), the first frame exhibits a still life composition of carefully scattered objects on a vibrant red blanket. But in the second frame the view expands and a story unfolds, revealing a new perspective. Perhaps they are tokens of the past left behind by Mike Goldberg, as the title suggests, or perhaps the scene displays the momentary quiet between cooling dips in the ocean. Nevertheless, in the few seconds between pictures, the items transform from objects to personal keepsakes cast in a scene of rocky beaches with waves crashing ashore.
Eve Sonneman, a photographer of international renown, was born in Chicago. She has exhibited widely throughout the world, and has had 85 one-person exhibitions. She has participated in the 1977 Documenta and in the biennales of Venice, Paris, Strasbourg and Australia. Her work is represented in major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Centre George Pompidou, Paris, the National Gallery of Australia, among others. She has published five books. Sonneman currently lives and works in New York City.
DATES: December 8, 2010 - January 29, 2011
RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST: Wednesday, December 8 from 6 to 8 p.m.
