Lauren Henkin, Charleston

JoAnn Verburg, LOOKING UP, 2007 

If you have an iPad, be sure to check out Verburg’s excellent work AS IT IS AGAIN (free). I’ve seen many iPad photography projects and Verburg’s is one of the best examples, and a lesson to keep iPad portfolios simple. It was released in 2011, yet still works perfectly, despite the technology changes since then.

Sannah Kvist, The Bicaz dam in Romania. This was lake bed before 1950, 2013

Sergeant James McDonald, Seyal (Shittim) Tree, Mouth of Wady Aleyat, from the album “Ordinance Survey of the Peninsula of Sinai,” 1868

Tacita Dean, Majesty, 2006

I’m not sure what influence, if any, Ed Ruscha’s 1971 book of palm trees isolated by white paint (or maybe Wite-Out) had on Dean’s 2006 series. In jpeg form, these overpainted tree photographs can look similar. But the choice of tree species meant more painting for Dean and you can see the background through the gouache. Dean’s oaks are massive, three meters tall, whereas even the pages from Ruscha’s book maquette are the size of piece of paper. I’ve seen both and though the Dean is mostly photograph, it feels like a painting; you can get up close and experience abstraction in the branches.

A handful of photos related to Ed Ruscha’s book “A Few Palm Trees.” There does not seem to be a solid representation of this work online (first two images are from ebay), and an original copy of the book starts at $500 USD. For an excellent history and overview of Ruscha’s photography and process information (source of the last image), seek out “Ed Ruscha Photographer.”

Rachel Rinehart, WILDWOOD