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Thomas Kellner

41#05 Washington, Lincoln Memorial

2003

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Thomas Kellner

41#05 Washington, Lincoln Memorial

2003

Physical Qualities Chromogenic print, Sheet: 902 x 892 mm. (35 1/2 x 35 1/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Nancy and Tom O'Neil, Baltimore
Object Number 2013.337
Thomas Kellner explores techniques such as pinhole photography and photograms that can distort familiar images of the world and challenge perception. In 1997, inspired by the fragmented viewpoint of early-20th-century cubism, Kellner devised a method for photographing the Eiffel Tower that has since become his signature approach to iconic landmarks around the world. He begins by sketching the chosen site from a single angle and dividing the sketch into a grid. The grid then becomes the blueprint with which he systematically photographs each monument, section by section, using 35-mm film. He prints each roll in sequential rows on a contact sheet, cuts its miniature images into strips, and recombines them into a representation of the building as a whole. Kellner’s exacting process results in surprisingly disorienting photographs. In many of these works, the attraction appears disjointed and askew, as if tumbling to the ground. This 2004 image of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC plays with our vision in more subtle ways. Its 624 frames nearly cohere, but their slightly off-kilter quality produces a flickering effect as if we were viewing the edifice in the rippling surface of the nearby Reflecting Pool or as dynamic frames projected on a movie screen.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2013; Tom and Nancy O'Neil, Baltimore, by purchase, 2006; the artist
New Arrivals: Photographs from the O'Neil Collection

Artist

Thomas Kellner

1965–2000

German, born 1966
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