Gregory
Conniff's large-scale black and white pastoral images evoke the
sensuality of nineteenth century photographic materials. In his
affectionate and intelligent work, there is a visible connection to the
history of landscape art, reaching back as far as Claude Lorrain and
seventeenth-century Dutch drawing. Conniff is also a leading
practitioner of a new pastoralism that is casting a contemporary eye on
the current state of America's open land.
Postmodern in the best sense, Conniff's pictures address the timeless
human need to see beauty in the world that shapes our lives. A resident
of Wisconsin for more than thirty years, Conniff has focused much of
his artistic energy on the rural Midwest, exploring the interdependent
relationship between land and people. For the past fifteen years,
Conniff has also been making pictures of rural Mississippi, again
focusing on elements of the landscape that resonate with a universal
sense of aesthetic familiarity.
As he explains, "I am interested in work that defines and protects the
vanishing, commonplace beauties that let us know we're home."
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Wild Edges
Photographic
Ink
Prints by Gregory Conniff
by Gregory Conniff
with interview with Gregory Conniff by Russell Panczenko
Chazen
Museum of Art, 2007
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