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Arizona Landscape

Photograph
1943 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Sommer, Frederick (photographer)
Place of origin
Arizona (photographed)

Frederick Sommer started photographing landscape around 1939, having bought a large-format camera the previous year. With their flattened compositions and meticulous detail, his desert scenes suggest the plans and maps he would have made when working as a landscape architect. Their patterning, minimal shadow and omitted horizon also have much in common with the ‘all-over’ field paintings of American Abstract Expressionist artists in the 1940s and 1950s. Sommer’s atomised landscapes, devoid of human presence, can be seen to share with Abstract Expressionism a sense of existential unease in the face of global war.


Object details

Categories
Photographs
Access_to_Images 2003
Object type
Photograph
TitleArizona Landscape (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin-silver print
Photography
Brief description
'Arizona Landscape, 1943', photograph by Frederick Sommer (1905-1999)
Physical description
Photograph
Dimensions
  • Height: 19.2cm
  • Width: 24.3cm
Gallery label
  • Near and far Sommer started photographing landscape around 1939, having bought a large-format camera the previous year. With their flattened compositions and meticulous detail, his desert scenes suggest the plans and maps he would have made when working as a landscape architect. Their patterning, minimal shadow and omitted horizon also have much in common with the 'all-over' field paintings of American Abstract Expressionist painters. Perhaps, like those paintings, these atomised landscapes devoid of human presence speak of existential unease in the wake of world war. About the same time, Sommer also made a series of photographs of decaying animals he encountered on desert walks. Like the rabbit pictured here, which is returning to the earth as it decomposes, these photographs suggest a meditation on the cycle of life and death. [130] Jack Rabbit 1939 Gelatin-silver print Given by the photographer Museum no. E.996-1993 Arizona Landscape 1943 Gelatin-silver print Given by the photographer Museum no. E.998-1993 Arizona Landscape 1943 Gelatin-silver print Given by the photographer Museum no. E.999-1993 Arizona Landscape 1945 Gelatin-silver print Given by the photographer Museum no. E.1000-1993 Arizona Landscape 1943 Gelatin-silver print Given by the photographer Museum no. E.1001-1993(20/01/2005 - 03/04/2005)
  • "The infinitely near is as far as the infinitely far all things linger where time builds eternity " Frederick Sommer "Sommer started photographing the Arizona landscape around 1939, having bought a large format camera the previous year. With their flattened compositions and meticulous detail, Sommer's desert landscapes are suggestive of the plans and maps he would have made when working as a landscape architect. Their patterning, minimal shadow and omitted horizon also have much in common with the 'all-over' field paintings of American Abstract Expressionist painters. Perhaps, like those paintings, these atomised, horizonless landscapes devoid of human presence speak of existential unease in the wake of World War." - Kate Best(11/09/2007-28/06/2008)
Credit line
Given by the photographer 1993
Historical context
Frederick Sommer’s photographs marry a surrealist imagination with brilliant photographic technique: the airless Arizona Landscapes are his most famous and personal creation. Devoid of markers of scale or distance, these panoramic views seem like endless expanses of space, immeasurable and sublime. In 1939 he created a series of grotesque still-lifes, depicting the heads and entrails of chickens with perfect precision. Sommer’s images are often akin to surrealist paintings, mysterious, tense or foreboding in mood, and suggesting as he said, that "something metaphysical is happening".
Place depicted
Arizona
Summary
Frederick Sommer started photographing landscape around 1939, having bought a large-format camera the previous year. With their flattened compositions and meticulous detail, his desert scenes suggest the plans and maps he would have made when working as a landscape architect. Their patterning, minimal shadow and omitted horizon also have much in common with the ‘all-over’ field paintings of American Abstract Expressionist artists in the 1940s and 1950s. Sommer’s atomised landscapes, devoid of human presence, can be seen to share with Abstract Expressionism a sense of existential unease in the face of global war.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.999-1993

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Record createdNovember 24, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O107474/arizona-landscape-photograph-sommer-frederick/
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