Der Rhine, II
1999
C print on paper
156 x 308 cm
Rimini
2003
C-print mounted on Plexiglas
298 x 207 cm
Greeley
2002
C-print mounted on Plexiglas
210 x 263 cm
It's hard not to be taken in by Andreas Gursky's panoramc large scale prints. The use of sublime is his conceptual vehicle that turns to industry as it's subject. William Turner used the indomitable nature,
Barnett Newman used abstraction
and Gursky uses industrial landscape. One could draw an historical sequence through these artist's interpretation man's hold on nature. What Gursky accomplishes is a subtly guided observation of globalization. These images are believable. They are named after specific places, but the familiar imagery could be in several places. The believability of these photographs is what sticks in my head, the vast and destructive human footprint on our environment should not be so easy to accept.