John Gossage (b. 1946) is well-known to fellow artists for his enigmatic projects and extensive photobook production, yet remains something of a secret to the broader community. First exhibiting with Leo Castelli in 1975, Gossage has spent nearly four decades mining the intersection of photography and contemporary art. His first book, The Pond (Aperture, 1985), is a classic among photographers and educators, in no small part due to a non-traditional visual language and quotidian subject matter. Gossage consistently manages to gently upend our expectations of how a photograph operates.
Using simple materials, they push at the edge between collage and straight photography, not sitting squarely in either space. A traditional photographic image takes you “elsewhere” and “previously”; the photographic frame acts as a threshold to another place and time. By presenting each image unobscured but in tandem with collage-like elements and handmade marks, Gossage breaks the basic photographic illusion and directs one’s attention back to the surface of the work—to the present—with a rare sophistication.
A catalogue of the work, including an interview with the artist, is available in very limited quantities.
