Hans-Christian Schink in re Chris McCaw

It's a funny thing -- once you start to notice a particular theme or idea, you start to see it everywhere. No sooner had I enjoyed and written about Chris McCaw's "Sunburned" series at Michael Mazzeo Gallery, I ran across Hans-Christian Schink's "1 Hour" series at the Kicken Gallery's booth both at Art Forum in Berlin and Paris Photo (Kicken Gallery website ). It seems that there is more photographic art work tracking the path of the sun across the heavens than I first thought.

I mentioned Richard Misrach and Hiroshi Yamazaki in addition to Mr. McCaw in my first post. Though all three share with Mr. Schink a photographic representation of the sun moving across the sky, it is not to say that they are similar. Mr. Schink has a formal, conceptual framework that limits his exposure to exactly one hour -- hence the title of the series. Also, since each photograph is taken in the course of an hour in a different location, his artistic intention is to have them shown together as we see below followed by their titles:


Algeria 1: 6/20/2007, 7:02 am – 8:02 am, N 22°54.402' E 005°40.083'

Algeria 2: 1/09/2008, 4:38 pm – 5:38 pm, N 21°48.913’ E 006°30.297

Apple Valley: 2/22/2006, 7:32 am – 8:32 am, N 34°30.850' W 117°12.266'

Dubai: 5/10/2006, 6:47 am – 7:47 am, N 24°47.435' E 055°56.493'

Cappadocia: 7/27/2008, 7:07 – 8:07 am, N 38°38.269’ E 034°49.963’

Los Angeles: 2/23/2006, 4:04 pm – 5:04 pm, N 34°03.712', W 118°20.979'

Leipzig: 5/03/2006, 6:04 pm – 7:04 pm, N 51°22.126' E 012°09.310'

Norway 1: 7/14/2007 – 7/15/2007, 11:28 pm – 0:28 am, N 69° 37.661'
E 018°13.470'

Norway 2: 7/11/2007, 5:27 pm – 6:27 pm, N 69°45.199' E 020°29.497'

Oman: 5/12/2006, 6:44 am – 7:44 am, N 24°43.562' E 055°57.061'

Spitzbergen: 9/17/2006, 8:45 am – 9:45am, N 78°13.370' E 015°40.024'

Tokyo: 10/28/2005, 2:03 pm – 3:03 pm, N 35°40.460' E 139°45.243'

This conceptual framework makes gives Mr. Schink's work more in common with Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Seascapes" than with the "Sunburned" series. Mr. McCaw has no limits on his exposure time, place on the globe, or serialization of the images. He doesn't intend to imply to show a commonality of the images within a typological frame. While I find Mr. McCaw's process oriented works more viscerally and visually satisfying, one can also find pleasure in Mr. Schink's rigorous intellectual étude.

I add a few full frame examples to illustrate individual photos rather than the whole installation:







It never fails to amaze me how works that have such a surface similarity can be so far apart in concept, intention, and execution. I marvel at the fine distinctions photography affords, and I savor the rich possibilities for interpretation and comparison that fine artists bring to my eyes.