Lynn Saville
Artist Statement
Two Versions of Vacant Streets
For a number of years, I have photographed the city as if it were a stage set freed of human "actors" — except perhaps for one or two ghosted figures — and dreaming its own dreams. In pursuing this vision, I have been influenced by the work of Atget, among others. Atget's photographs, of course, present the streets of Paris at an hour when they are devoid of people.
As newspapers and newscasts conveyed images of city streets emptied during the pandemic, I was struck by a resemblance between these news photographs and my pictures of a largely unpopulated urban landscape. In thinking about these two versions of vacant streets, however, I became convinced of their difference. The news photos, many taken during the day, enforced a perception of a built environment eerily liberated from its builders, as if a neutron bomb had eliminated the population while leaving the structures of civilization intact. But I don't believe my photographs, taken at twilight and dawn, convey such a bleak vision.
My pictures, admittedly, hint at isolation and danger and sometimes, as one critic has written, suggest a feeling of the sublime that has fear as one of its components. However, my work is mainly inspired by the wish to affirm the value of individual solitude in the midst of a major city. I make such an affirmation by allowing the cityscape a life of its own beyond its function as an abettor of, and backdrop to, human activity. This, in turn, reflects my own quest to transcend, through a meditative moment, the limiting roles and errands assigned to me by society.
A news photo comes framed by a news context. Pictures of city streets emptied by the pandemic convey a vacancy that is perceived as negative because it shows the lack of human activity. In my pictures of an empty urban landscape, I want to convey the positive value of vacancy as the sign of an individual's solitary meditation, even in the midst of a populous city.
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