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Martin Schoeller: Close Up
A photographic close-up is perhaps the purest form of portraiture, creating a confrontation between the viewer and the subject that daily interaction makes impossible, or at least impolite. — Martin Schoeller
Informed by his early exposure to both the celebrity portrait work of Annie Leibovitz and the formal austerity of German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher, Martin Schoeller’s photographic portraits provide a topographic and serial representation of various human faces.
A native of Germany, Schoeller, who now lives and works in New York, makes portraits both of well-known actors, politicians, and musicians, as well as the distinctly “un-famous” who are presented at parity, enabling us to question our notions about celebrity, personality, and likeness.
These large-scale photographs, with their hyper-real detail, give us unflinching close-ups that at once decontextualize the face as they detail its landscape. As a result, each image proves a compelling visual topography and an opportunity to precisely examine the apparent complexities and contradictions of each subject. When hung en masse, Schoeller’s photographs take on a haunting prosthetic agency, as if his subjects are gazing back at the viewer while we gaze at them.
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