CAMPUS, Peter (b. 1937 New York)

Outer Edge

Gelatin silver print, 1985

Neutral toned print on semi-gloss double weight paper with margins.  Image 28-1/2 x 36 in. (72.4 x 91.4 cm).  Signed, titled, dated and numbered '2/3' in pencil on the verso.  Mounted in a black wooden frame 36 x 43-1/2 x 3/4 in.  Excellent condition; minor mounting undulation across surface within mount.

As Campus relates in his interview with John Hanhardt in BOMB Magazine (1999), explaining his interlude in nature photography (notably this enlargement from a 4x5 negative) in the 1980’s between immersion in video and projective imaging: “For me what was important was not the switch from video to photography, but from the interior to the exterior.  The interior examinations became overwhelming. ...  They continued that idea of confrontational imagery and it just became too much for me.  I had to stop. ... Finally, from there, I went into nature.  But I was still looking for what I called “resonance” in what I was feeling.  I wouldn’t go out to photograph a tree or a stone or a rock; I never felt that the subject of my work was trees, rocks, or stones - I felt that they were in many ways a continuation of my internal examination, that they were reflecting my mood in nature.  The difficulty is that often that’s not what’s communicated.  It is subtle and not direct.  Often people misunderstand work, or, let’s say it’s expected that people have different interpretations than I do of my work.  The nature pieces with the 4x5 camera were received very differently from the way I saw them.”

Interview: "Peter Campus by John Hanhardt,” BOMB, no. 68 (Summer 1999)

Provenance: with Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (label on frame backing board)

Detail