Barbara Crane gave a talk last November coinciding with her exhibition, Barbara Crane: Private Views, currently on view at Aperture Gallery. Crane went through her entire 45-year illustrious career as a photographer who continues to experiment with processes and reinventing a new language for her different bodies of work. In this excerpt below, Crane speaks specifically about her series of close-up Polaroids from Private Views taken in Chicago in the 1980s; how she photographed in movement with her cumbersome Super Speed Graphic camera, in thick crowds and her particular attention to gesture and colors. She also explains how it took her more than 25 years to edit these images in a book.

To watch the full version of this talk, click on these links below:

Part 1, Part 2

Barbara Crane: Private Views is on view at Aperture Gallery until January 21st. This series is a celebration of the classic 1980s Polaroid snapshot with an experimental flair; Crane’s mixture of natural light and flash combined with her use of Polaroid film highlights the primary colors of ’80s fashion, which still feels hip and contemporary today. An exhibition of this work will also be on view at Galerie Françoise Paviot, in Paris from January 14th until February 20th. There will be an opening with the artist on Saturday, January 23rd from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.

View related limited-edition print and book

On the occasion of the exhibition, The Transparent City, currently on view at Aperture Gallery, photographer Michael Wolf gave a talk last November presenting his different bodies of work throughout his career starting with how he became a photographer.

This clip below is an excerpt from his talk where Wolf presents his aesthetic of photographing architecture in both Hong Kong and Chicago. Watch as Wolf explains how the images work both as a graphic abstract depiction of the buildings and an incredibly detailed portrait of them depending on the distance you view them from. Playing with the idea of scale, he also discusses his decision to digitally enlarge the detail images of the buildings, creating pixelated portraits of the inhabitants inside these buildings.

To watch the full version, click on these links below:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

If you haven’t seen it yet, please come to visit Wolf’s exhibition at Aperture Gallery, on view until January 21st.  The Transparent City features his large-scale color photographs of downtown Chicago’s buildings and their inhabitants examining public versus private space in the context of 21st-century urban life.

TWO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
EXPLORE PRIVATE VERSUS PUBLIC LIFE IN CHICAGO—PAST AND PRESENT

Aperture Gallery is pleased to present two simultaneous exhibitions exploring the city of Chicago from different vantage points and periods in history. While Michael Wolf’s large-scale color photographs of downtown Chicago’s buildings and their inhabitants examine public versus private space in the context of 21st-century urban life, Barbara Crane’s intimate Polaroids from the 1980s hone in on private human gestures performed in public at Chicago’s summer festivals.

Michael Wolf: Artist’s Talk and Book Signing
Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 pm

Barbara Crane and Barbara Hitchcock
in Conversation + Book Signing
Wednesday, November 11, 6:30 pm

Opening Reception with pics Fuji’s new instant cameras! :
Thursday, November 12, 6:00—8:00 pm

Exhibitions on view:
November 7, 2009—January 21, 2010

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
between 10th & 11th Avenues
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

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Photographer Michael Wolf gives Artforum’s Brian Sholis 500 words on his experience creating The Transparent City, which is now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Wolf began his project documenting Asia’s booming cities, focusing solely on architecture until he discovered a chance moment captured in his image.

“One evening I was looking at a photograph I had shot and I saw in it a man giving me the middle finger. In the exact moment he made that gesture I pressed the shutter, even though I had probably been standing there for twenty minutes.”

By zooming in, Wolf’s photographs achieved another whole dimension and purpose which he equates to a Hopper-esque aesthetic.

Read the full interview here at Artforum and be sure to check out The Transparent City, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago through January 31, 2009.

Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois

The Transparent City is also available in hardcover here, through Aperture.

Michael Wolf: The Transparent City

Upcoming Exhibition on View:
Friday, November 14, 2008 –Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Museum of Contemporary Photography
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois

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Ongoing Exhibition on View:
Thursday, November 6, 2008 –Saturday, January 3, 2009

Robert Koch Gallery
49 Geary Street, Fl. 5
San Francisco, California

In this, Michael Wolf‘s first body of work to address an American city, the artist has chosen to focus on issues of voyeurism and the contemporary urban landscape in flux. Bringing his unique perspective on the changing urban environments in Chicago, a city renowned for its architectural legacy, Wolf chose to photograph the central downtown area, inviting the viewer to see beyond the dense outer structures and to think about the transparency and fluidity of the new American cityscape. This series was created as part of the Chicago-based U.S. Equities Realty artist-in-resident program, a collaboration with the MoCP.

Save 30% on the accompany book here.