"PHILIP TRAGER". Collectif. Editions Steidl, Göttingen. 2006. Fort petit in-4, couverture toilée noire sous jaquette photo. 312 pages. Textes en anglais de John Wood, Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, avant-propos de Jeremy Adamson, introduction de Stephanie Wiles & Clare Rogan, illustré de 156 reproductions photographiques noir & blanc, pleine page pour la plupart, par Philip Trager. Ouvrage réalisé dans le cadre de l'exposition rétrospective organisée par The Davidson Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut & The Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. 

 

"Philip Trager's work is about form. Form-pure form, form alone-is his sole subject, and he is that subject's great master. Some people primarily think of him as an architectural photographer, while others know him only as a dance photographer. The confusion is understandable; what two subjects could seem more unrelated, unconnected, or disparate than architecture and dance? But there is nothing schizophrenic in the eye or art of Philip Trager; his genius has been to see the obvious connection between the two. Architecture and dance are humanity's two most profound expressions of form. One is the most static; the other the most dynamic. One is the most concrete and solid, able to last for millennia, the other the most airy and ephemeral, gone when the dance is done. One is the most utilitarian-often necessary even for our survival-while the other, certainly unnecessary for the body's survival, speaks to the spirit's and is the most completely artistic expression of form... Trager's art is a rhapsody of these two supreme human expression of form, the concrete, physical shapes of building and the ephemeral, spiritlike, and constantly dissolving shapes of dance..." Extrait de "The Formal Eye" par John Wood.

 

Ref LPB0700