ANTHONY HERNANDEZ + TORBJØRN RØDLAND:
MACK BOOKS IN L.A. AT ARCANA THIS THURSDAY

PLEASE JOIN US FROM 6-8:00 PM THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13th  FOR REFRESHMENTS AND PRE-HOLIDAY CONSUMERISM AS WE WELCOME TWO PHOTOGRAPHIC TITANS AND CELEBRATE THEIR HOT-OFF-THE-PRESSES NEW RELEASES!
 

Anthony Hernandez: Rodeo Drive, 1984

Rodeo Drive, 1984 is Anthony Hernandez' series of forty-one photographic images of shoppers on Beverly Hills’ infamous commercial thoroughfare. His subjects appear to be caught unaware, glancing up as they walk, or daydreaming as they wait to be served in its landscape of tony shops and restaurants.  Hernandez poses as a dispassionate observer, recording the big hair, wide shoulders and cinched waists of the 1980s in sunlit photographs.

He does not simply document the urban experience, but reveals in his images the complexity of social spaces, implying economic disparity and racial divide. Layers of socio-economic tension are exposed on the street in an overt symbol of civic success; as Lewis Baltz observes, “these are the victors...enjoying the spoils of their victory on Rodeo Drive”. Working in the 1970s, Hernandez and his contemporaries (including Lewis Baltz and Terry Wild) were interested in photographing the social landscape of Los Angeles. His work was included in the landmark exhibition The Crowded Vacancy at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon) in 1971, which introduced to the public a new type of American landscape photography - four years prior to New Topographics.

This sumptuous new MACK Books release presents in print for the first time Anthony Hernandez' wry assessment of Reagan-era consumerism.
 

Torbjørn Rødland: Vanilla Partner

Torbjørn Rødland's photography is direct but idiosyncratic; pushing at the boundaries of aesthetic and social norms. His fifth book, Vanilla Partner, continues in this vein, combining images of fetishized isolation in a layout that rejects the linear structure of thematic photography books.

Rødland's practice navigates through the problematic and seemingly unchanging heart of popular photography. Accepting neither the humanist realism of most photographic portraiture nor the postmodern role-play, Vanilla Partner explores the cultural complexities and archaic foundation of contemporary image-making. Reconstructed scenes of ultra-soft BDSM read like twisted metaphors for photography’s ability to freeze or capture. The book title, dripping in innuendo, also poses a question about the ambiguity of the relationship between the artist and his medium. Is Rødland acknowledging the medium’s straight foundation or does he see himself dominated by it? Many of the images also have explicit political references, often linked to the 1980 US Presidential election.

Vanilla Partner brings together works made in Oslo, Tokyo, Beijing and Rødland’s current home, Los Angeles. Only just released, it has already appeared on several "Best of" photography books lists for 2012!