PHOTOGRAPHS
Schink, Hans-Christian
Germany (1961 - )
L.A. Night #10
2003
Laser print mounted to acrylic (Diasec)
37 1/2 x 51 3/8 in. (95.3 x 130.5 cm) image size; 47 1/16 x 60 1/8 in. (119.5 x 152.7 cm) exposed image size; 49 3/8 x 62 7/16 x 1 5/8 in. (125.4 x 158.6 x 4.1 cm) frame size
Gift of Burt and Jane Berman
FA 2005.124

The contradictory, overwhelming character of Los Angeles is broken down into byte-sized pixels by the digital photography of Hans-Christian Schink. In the Los Angeles night, light is the primary actor: it pulses and pools, made pointillist by pixelation. Streetlights are red hot nimbuses; fluorescents are unearthly lagoons in which parked cars float. Schink’s camera reveals universes of swirling color and grainy light hidden in the dark air, invisible to the naked eye. Enlarged almost to the point of complete abstraction, this image buzzes with unnatural color and sharp-edged static—akin to the nature of L.A. itself.

-- Label copy for Videowatercolors: Carel Balth Among His Contemporaries, October 15, 2011, to January 22, 2012.