Jeff Wall: The Art of the Constructed Moment


Jeff Walls’s photographs aren’t just showing us the world, but rather, they are reconstructing it. They are often large-scale and meticulously composed, which gives his pictures a sense of how he is walking this fine line between realism and staged fiction. When looking at some of these pictures, we get this feeling that they are almost framed from a film that was never made or stemmed from a forgotten memory. Yet we know that every detail is deliberate. Every reflection, every gesture, down to every little smudge of light, is intentional.

A person cleaning a room AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Morning Cleaning, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona, 1999
Transparency in lightbox, 187 x 351 cm
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Purchased 2000 with assistance of the Ernst von Siemens-Kunstfond

© Jeff Wall

Something that set Wall apart for me is the way he blended the language of cinema with the stillness of photography. His work is about the event, not the instant. This is reinforced through one of his signature techniques, which is composite photography. Each piece is constructed from dozens of photographs taken at different times, and then they are stitched together. In this case, this wasn’t done to create a fantasy scene, it is being done to create a more complete scene. It creates an image that captures a scene over time.

A shed in a backyard AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Boy falls from tree, 2010
Lightjet print, 226 x 305.3 cm
Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, gift from the President 2012, on permanent loan to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel

© Jeff Wall

 

Let us look at one of his pieces, “A Sudden Gust of Wind”, where we see a sweeping landscape where papers are flying all over the place. Figures are bracing against the force of the wind. At first glance, this photograph looks like a spur of the moment was captured, but in truth, it is a picture that was months in the planning. This gives it an uncanny feeling, because it just feels too perfect to be a true photo.

A group of men running near a river AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Coming from a background rooted in scientific problem-solving, I often think in terms of structure and system. So naturally, I am fascinated by Wall’s process, how he is constructing an image from parts. He isn’t just capturing a scene, but rather he is building one. He is laying light, time, and meaning one photograph at a time.

 

 

 

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