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Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05
by Michael Light

ARTIST STATEMENT

Untitled/San Fernando Valley and Golden State Freeway/San Fernando Pass are two sides of a single photographic coin, an investigation into certain currencies of structure and place—and meaning and light—in America’s largest megalopolis, Los Angeles. Each image opens separate but twinned bodies of work that were shot in close succession, now joined in an unusual “Z” binding in my latest book, LA Day/LA Night, published in April 2011 by Radius Books. Los Angeles is a desert city and is washed in the brittle and clear light common to dry climates, but that light is also profoundly influenced by coastal moisture from the Pacific Ocean—and by the effects of human inhabitation, like dust and smog. I made the Day work just after completing my archival project 100 SUNS (which meditated on the nature of atomic and hydrogen bombs), and I found that I was still looking straight into the light, perhaps attempting to capture a sense of both infinitude and apocalypse—eternality and contingency—at once. I was after a whiteness and illumination that might make light and the city itself seem corporeal and atmospheric, as well as unforgiving. The Night work was both a logical place to go after the Day, and a kind of gentle antidote to its harsh bleakness. Both bodies of work were photographed from a helicopter, and the night images were particularly challenging in a technical sense. For me, their beauty, which is the pretty beauty of reduction and abstraction, can be both easy and overwhelmingly complex. At their best they show the terrifying and wondrous beauty of wholly human creation, a fleeting electric hubris that can even mirror night’s eternal celestial vault above.

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More art by Michael Light

  • Golden State Freeway/San Fernando Pass; from Los Angeles 02.12.04

Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05

by Michael Light

archival pigment print

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ADDITIONAL PRINT INFORMATION

  • Limited-edition, exclusive to 20x200
  • Museum quality: archival inks, 100% cotton rag paper
  • Artist-signed + numbered certificate of authenticity included
  • Directly supports the artist

These prints are created using archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper with a matte finish.

This print was produced as part of a pair. The sister print is titled Golden State Freeway/San Fernando Pass; from Los Angeles 02.12.04 and when side-by-side, appear as below:

Light_pair_300.jpg

Our quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the images, not the printed image itself. We do not alter the aspect ratio, nor do we crop or resize the artists’ originals.

* The 24″×30″ prints in this edition are signed by the artist on verso.

Please inquire for custom framing consultation for this print: framing@20x200.com

 

How to Frame Your Art

All of our prints have a minimum border of .25 inches to allow for framing. We do not alter the aspect ratio, crop or resize the artists' originals—quoted dimensions are for the size of paper containing the image, not the printed image itself. For exact image sizes and more helpful info, view our framing guides: