Ori Gersht: Just like a foggy memory…

When I first saw Ori Gersht’s work on the Mummery + Schnelle’s website, her photos were displayed so small that I brushed them aside as uninteresting. But when I accidentally enlarged one, I was amazed!

His landscapes remind me of a less expansive Albert Bierstadt painting– but more foreboding; strange is about to happen. Some scenes are airy, hard to see– they make me strain my eyes. But when I see, I’ll admit I am amazed. It’s worth the effort. The images are romantic tinged with possibility, mystery, and fantasy. In his painterly photographs, a strange tension hangs in the air. And for me, that’s all the more reasons to keep looking; the longer I look, the more I see.

Fade to Light, Ori Gersht (2009)

Hide and Seek: Swamp, Ori Gersht, 2009

Hide and Seek: Boatman, Ori Gersht (2009)

Falling Bird, Untitled No. 1, Ori Gersht (2009)

Falling Bird, Untitled No. 8, Ori Gersht (2008)

(Doesn’t the above one remind you of a Marilyn Minter photo or painting?)

More on Gersht at the Smithsonian.