N41º46.748’ W073º50.793’ 9/6/04 451ft. (Center Light) 2005
From the Functional Ground SeriesIntroducing Torrance York.
I've been looking closely at these photographs and I think I understand what is happening and why they are so entrancing. Had we looked at these same views, on location, with our own eyes, we would have seen them as a seemless in-focus sweep back and forth from foreground to background. But York uses a shallow depth of field to pinpoint the focus just where she wants in these deep perspectives. She freezes a moment of our normally shifting gaze into one coherent image; looking down the length of a branch, the tip in focus and the rest receding into a haze of form and colors.
She is perhaps capturing something closer to the nature of our attention, rather than our natural sight.
Pods/ Millbrook, NY 10/20/01, 2002
From the Selections Series
Spring/ Pleasant Valley, NY 4/12/98, 1999
From the Selections Series
Blanket Bay/ Glenorchy, New Zealand 5/25/01, 2001
From the Selections Series
Willow/ Glenorchy, New Zealand 5/25/01, 2001
From the Selections SeriesIn her most recent series, Functional Ground, York explores the visual terrain of a working dairy farm and the roads and fields surrounding it.
N41º46.557’ W073º50.863’ 10/27/01 441ft. (Harvested) 2005
From the Functional Ground SeriesIn the artist's words: "These photographs depict a perspective seen only via the camera lens. Each image is titled with the date and the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates of the point from which it was photographed. Using this data emphasizes the connection between the interpreted image and the physical source. While the images show a natural environment marked by human use, the GPS coordinates refer to my tracks as I photograph this environment throughout the changing seasons."
N41°46.562’ W073°50.901’ 11/23/03 429ft. (Melville Road) 2005
From the Functional Ground Series
N41º46.513’ W073º50.830’ 12/30/03 426ft. (Fence) 2004
From the Functional Ground Series
N41º46.860’ W073º51.742’ 9/24/04 437ft. (Contrails) 2005
From the Functional Ground Series
Front Yard/ Jamestown, NY 4/28/98, 1999
From the Selections Series
Reds/ East Hampton, NY 11/23/01, 2002
From the Selections SeriesYork's work was most recently included in the Center for Photography at Woodstock's "Photography Now 2006" exhibition curated by Natasha Lunn, photo editor for The New Yorker magazine. It was shown in Woodstock and also at 401 Projects in New York.
All photographs are available as 18” x 18” c-prints, in editions of 10, for $500. Images from the Functional Ground series are also available as 28.5”x 28.5” prints for $750 and images from the Selections Series are available as 24”x 24” prints for $650.
Inquiries? Please contact the artist directly via email.
Thanks Torrance!
And if you were a kid in the late 70s/early 80s, you may remember Torrance from Jill Krementz's book, "A Very Young Gymnast." Photographer Krementz documented a year in the life of young Torrance. My sister repeatedly checked out this book and "A Very Young Dancer" from our library.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394500806/104-4686645-1546344?v=glance&n=283155
These are amazing. Thank you so much for this post.
Lovely. The first photo is a sort of "Starry Night."
Don't you think selective focus work kind of...hmmmm...basic?
Ugh. Now I know that Lasik has progressed too far in our culture.
This is just the way the world looks without my glasses (I'm too nearsighted for lasik, and too chicken to have my corneas replaced altogether, which is the surgical alternative). The only view in focus is one narrow range pretty damn close to the eye.
Maybe this appeals to some people, but since right now I pay $500 for my glasses and conttacts and for the surgery I'd have to pay a small fortune, all in order to see the world any other way than this, count me out.
these are beautiful! i was hanging around googling people & wondered what became of torrance from jill krementz' book, and found her here. these are fantastic... i wish i knew how to achieve such effects. i've always been frustrated by my own ability to get any depth of field in my photos... maybe i should try the opposite & see what happens. wish i could afford one of these!!!