PHOTO:Vera Lutter-Turning Time
Inspired by New York’s light, architecture, and perpetual state of flux, Vera Lutter turned to photography in the early 1990s as a means to record the continuously changing cityscape. To capture an immediate and direct imprint of her surroundings, she transformed her apartment into a large pinhole camera, employing the space that contained her personal experience as the apparatus that would document it.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive
Vera Lutter in her solo exhibition “Turning Time” presents eight new photographs that compromise two series, one depicting ancient temples in the southern Italian town of Paestum, the other the Effelsberg Radio Telescope at the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomiey in Germany, a radio telescope used for scientific research and recording cosmic activity in outer space. At each site, Lutter transformed a standard-size shipping container into a camera obscura. Lutter’s images are large and the exposure times can last hours, weeks, or even months. The projected image inscribes itself as an inverted black-and-white image, making each print a unique object, a negative on paper that cannot be reprinted.These studies of historical monuments and pivotal technological innovations reflect Lutter’s deep relationship with the forces of time. In 2013, Lutter traveled to the Eifel region of Germany to photograph the Effelsberg telescope. One of the largest radio telescopes on Earth, with a diameter of 100 meters, it collects ancient radio waves that have traveled for light years to reach our hemisphere, helping to shape our understanding of planets and activity beyond our own. Over the course of a month, Lutter made a series of compelling black-and-white images of the telescope while the instrument itself was exploring the farthest reaches of our galaxy, searching for information that will inform us about the past and, possibly, the inception of our universe. Conversely, the ancient site of Greek civilization Paestum, located in southern Italy, includes three temples constructed circa 550 BCE, as tribute to the gods Athena and Neptune. Once again utilizing the shipping container as camera obscura, Lutter photographed the mysterious monuments that radiate their place in history and time with majestic grandeur.
Info: Gagosian Gallery, 6-24 Britannia Street, London, Duration 7/2-14/4/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:0018:00, www.gagosian.com
