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Henry Wessel
Henry Wessel's often wry observations of the everyday built environment shown in New Topographics were made in California (where he moved cross-country in 1971) as well as in the West and Southwest. He was drawn to California's luminosity, and found a photograph must describe light accurately to be compelling and persuasive. Seemingly casual yet rigorously composed and spare, Wessel's photographs on view in New Topographics suggest an idiosyncratic hegemony of man over nature. He was fascinated early on by both his mother's real-estate photographs and the work of Walker Evans. In 1971, Wessel won a Guggenheim grant in support of a project he described as “The Photographic Document of the U.S. Highways and the Adjacent Landscape,” followed two years later with a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art.
1. HOLLYWOOD, 1972 Gelatin silver print 8 in. x 12 in. Lent by the artist, courtesy Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, © 1972 Henry Wessel.
2. BUENA VISTA, COLORADO, 1973 Gelatin silver print 11 x 14 in. George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, © 1973 Henry Wessel.
3. HOLLYWOOD, 1972 Gelatin silver print 8 x 12 in. Lent by the artist, courtesy Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, © 1972 Henry Wessel.
Audio excerpt from a 2007 interview with Henry Wessel, generously provided by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
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Henry Wessel Jr. talks about the value of spontaneity.
ROBERT ADAMS
LEWIS BALTZ
BERND AND HILLA BECHER
JOE DEAL
FRANK GOHLKE
NICHOLAS NIXON
JOHN SCHOTT
STEPHEN SHORE
HENRY WESSEL, JR.
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