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Current Exhibitions Future Exhibitions Back to Exhibitions )
Robert Langham, Elm Tree, Wild Pears, 1994. Digital print from silver negative, edition 5/40, 24 x 17 inches. Tyler Museum of Art, Gift of the Artist 2005.4.2)
Robert Langham, Moonrise, Jemez, NM, 1984. Digital print from silver negative, 24 x 17 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
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Robert Langham, Moonset, Shiprock, NM, 2001. Digital print from silver negative, 24 x 17 inches. Courtesy of the artist.
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Robert Langham, Sassafras Trees and Rose Field, 1999. Enhanced mat paper print, 24 x 17 inches. Courtesy of the artist
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Robert Langham, Blooming Pear and Chairs, 1994. Enhanced matte paper print, 26 x 33 inches.
Courtesy of the artist
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Robert Langham, Shiprock, Evening, South Dike, 2001. Enhanced matte paper print, 26 x 33 inches.
Courtesy of the artist
Shot on a 5 x 7 Deardorff View Camera/Tripod Photos are 5 x 7 Tri-X Black & White negatives Scanned, + Photoshop CS, then printed on an Epson Pro 4000 printer on Epson Enhanced paper |
Robert Langham: Intimate Expanse February 10–April 17, 2005 
Robert Langham is a native of Tyler. He has been photographing East Texas and Western landscapes since 1971 when he took a photojournalism class at Tyler Junior College. He has pursued his interest in fine art photography to wide acclaim while simultaneously maintaining a successful commercial photography business. In this exhibition at Tyler Museum of Art, Langham captures and transforms natue according to his own vision of "intimate expanse," a vision nurtured in East Texas. The artist notes that he persists in photographing East Texas because no other photographer has been active enough in this area to change the way we look at nature. When we look at nature in East Texas, we do not see it through someone else's iconic vision, as in the case of Ansel Adams' "American West," where the artist's images shape the way we see the very scenery. Langham is commenting on the fact that nature in East Texas has not undergone that indelible transformation in our perception brought about by other photographers' visions. Langham's East Texas landscapes are, first of all, a product of frequent visitation. He returns often to the same space, photographing the same object at different times of the day and in different seasons. He is able to do so because he is a "native," born, raised and lives here, and the places he photographs are always close by. The topography and dense vegetation of East Texas, also prompts him to establish a tie with small space, an "intimate" space, that is "barely out of his truck," and "within his arm's reach," according to the artist. Indeed, to symbolize such intimate relationship of small scale, the images of East Texas captured in the photographs are all in close proximity, sometime connected by the "reverse shot" taken by the photographer at the same spot. That is, Langham will photograph one scene, then turn "in place" and photograph another view. Such intimacy of space is expressed in the Wild Pear series in the exhibition. Langham has succeeded in transposing the basic relations of the intimate space in East Texas to the wide expanse of New Mexico near Shiprock. He has realized his own vision of the West. Langham's seminal work, Moonrise, Jemez, N.M. (1984), has all the elements of his future Shiprock landscapes-the moon, the clouds, and most importantly the shadow in the foreground of his truck (although the rock formation for which the place is known is not really visible. What is important is that the shadow of the truck compositionally links the photographer (and us as viewers) to the open expanse in such a way as to render the space "as enticing as it can be, as intimate as in East Texas," according to the artist. Hence, also, the "intimate expanse" of Langham's Western landscapes of Shiprock, New Mexico. Robert Langham's landscapes are therefore always intimate, if not actually small. They are based on an idea and a vision that is beholden by a native to the land he frequents. Even in New Mexico, where despite his frequent visits the photographer is not a "native," the land is reflected in the "native's" eye. It is space that "you could touch ... in an intimate way." The intimate space in either case is, far from closed-in. It is flung wide-open to the temporal expanse of celestial proportions. For, Langham's intimate landscapes are also always stamped with the images of the passing of the "celestial clock" in the form of sweeping shadows, rushing clouds or the streaking stars and the moon. The photographer who was inspired by the works of T.H. O'Sullivan (1840-1882), Ansel Adams (1902-1984), and Paul Caponigro (b. 1932) among others, is revealing to us his vision of landscape of "intimate expanse" nurtured in East Texas. Funding for this exhibition has been provided by CPS Medical, Inc., Dianne and James Holton and Satterwhite Log Homes. |