Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Danish Prospects

Christen Købke, View Outside the North Gate of the Citadel, 1834

While it once used to be a crucial topic, these days we have pretty much stopped thinking about the relationship between painting and photography, as if the two have stopped stepping on each other's toes a long time ago and now share little if no common ground.

But then you discover the work of Christen Købke, a Danish painter from the mid-19th century, and you really have to wonder if he may have played a key role in shaping what we call the great American color photography. I tried to google 'Købke + Sternfeld' to investigate, but I did not come up with much.

Joel Sternfeld, Glen Canyon Dam, Page, Arizona, 1983

1 comment:

Mauro Thon Giudici said...

I had a look into the Hudson school. Did not find a strict connection but the resemblances are striking, perhaps some exchanges happened there. I Think that if there is a connection among contemporary landscape photography and painting the Hudson school is for sure part of it. Perhaps not directly but certainly as a culprit pervading all US former photo landscaping.