John Pfahl
"FOUND PFAHLS"

Exhibition: May 10 – June 25, 2014
Opening: May 10, 2014

In John Pfahl’s first major body of work, the renowned series Altered Landscapes, Pfahl used everyday materials such as string and tape to create three-dimensional disruptions in the landscape that looked two-dimensional in the photograph. By inserting patently false lines, and incursions into sometimes banal, often picturesque landscapes, Pfahl pointed out and played up the photographer’s authority over the scene. His point has been that the photograph is a creation, whether altered or not. The importance of this self-consciousness in the mid-1970s is hard to overemphasize.

In this series, taken in the 1970s and newly printed, Pfahl presents images that are not altered but are no less compelling as the sites (and sights) are charming, funny, or surprising. Four decades after Altered Landscapes, Pfahl's work continues to elucidate intricacy of photographic practices and his printing continues to be—and has been—impeccable. He is a master of the photographic landscape’s complexity and wit.

JOHN PFAHL (American, b. 1939) has been a renowned photographer since the 1970s. His work is included in most major museums and collections throughout the world. Among his monographs are Altered Landscapes, Picture Windows, Arcadia Revisited, A Distanced Land, and Waterfalls. He lives in Buffalo, because he can leave.