Niagara Falls
Collection
C-print
Image size
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Andreas Gursky's photographs deal with the sublime, but not in the romantic sense of the individual overpowered by nature. Instead his work represents a world in which people are rendered insignificant next to the structures and technology of the global economy: stock exchanges, international hotels, ports, factories, upmarket stores, stadium rock concerts, tourist destinations. Typically, we view these scenes from a distance, often from above, a vantage point that allows us a rare glimpse of the scale at which these phenomena operate. Gursky's photographs tend either to be devoid of people, or else people congregate in antlike colonies dwarfed by their environment. Either way, the individual seems without agency. Of late, Gursky has been digitally manipulating his images: removing distracting details, enhancing and standardising colours, splicing sections together to extend an image. Their smooth perfectionism evokes the hyperreal surfaces of advertising imagery and commercial architecture.
Niagra Falls, an early and relatively small work, might seem to contradict this idea of a contemporary sublime rooted in technology. As an image of awesome natural spectacle, however, it is reiterative, made over-familiar by commerce, as Gursky signals with the inclusion of a large recreational boat packed with tourists. (Alex Farquharson)
Image size
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Andreas Gursky's photographs deal with the sublime, but not in the romantic sense of the individual overpowered by nature. Instead his work represents a world in which people are rendered insignificant next to the structures and technology of the global economy: stock exchanges, international hotels, ports, factories, upmarket stores, stadium rock concerts, tourist destinations. Typically, we view these scenes from a distance, often from above, a vantage point that allows us a rare glimpse of the scale at which these phenomena operate. Gursky's photographs tend either to be devoid of people, or else people congregate in antlike colonies dwarfed by their environment. Either way, the individual seems without agency. Of late, Gursky has been digitally manipulating his images: removing distracting details, enhancing and standardising colours, splicing sections together to extend an image. Their smooth perfectionism evokes the hyperreal surfaces of advertising imagery and commercial architecture.
Niagra Falls, an early and relatively small work, might seem to contradict this idea of a contemporary sublime rooted in technology. As an image of awesome natural spectacle, however, it is reiterative, made over-familiar by commerce, as Gursky signals with the inclusion of a large recreational boat packed with tourists. (Alex Farquharson)