03 November 2010

Michael Wesely - MOMA




This photograph was taken by photographer Michael Wesely, over a a 34 month period. It is one of a series of photographs which, captures the destruction and reconstruction of MOMA over this period using a long exposure.

Wesely's photographic practice involves his invention and refining of his techniques for his unusually long exposures, some lasting for more than three years. He uses this unusual approach to photography to capture some ghostly and stimulating photographs of the construction of urban sites. One of these being the rebuilding of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. As buildings are knocked down and then reconstructed it leaves a path of past and present, making it hard to distinguish the two.

MOMA invited Wesely to take a series of his long exposures during the destruction and reconstruction of their site from 2001 to June 2004, he used 4 different site locations to create his eight photographs. The overlaid images allow for an in-depth and unusual history of the site to be relayed within one image. The second photograph, of the ones shown above, is one of my favourites. It holds the same qualities of a solargraphy photograph as the movement of the sun can be seen within the image, giving the photograph a soft finish. It is also given so much depth due to the horizontal lines forming a mask of the construction of MOMA. The surrounding buildings stand solid and unchanged in the constant change of the surrounding area.



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