Matsue Taiji
California 1996

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Artist Matsue Taiji(Japanese, born 1963)Japanese, born 1963

CultureJapanese

Titles

California 1996

Date1996

PlaceCalifornia, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 17 5/8 × 22 in. (44.8 × 55.9 cm)
Sheet: 19 15/16 × 23 7/8 in. (50.6 × 60.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Zeit Photo Salon

Object number98.465

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionSince 1991, Matsue Taiji has driven all over the world to photograph the earth's surface from high points of view with his large-format camera. Often, he finds only one spot from which to photograph every 600 miles. Originally trained as a geographer, Matsue's subject is light as it is reflected on things firmly rooted on the earth. His photographs, which often lack strong contrasts, capture anonymous patches of the earth. Whether taken in the Andes or in the USA, the only way for the viewer to figure out the location of a particular photograph is from the work's title. The totality of this project offers a sampling of the light on earth during a brief moment, relatively speaking, in the history of the earth.
Provenance[Zeit-Foto Co., Ltd., Tokyo]; given to MFAH, 1998.
Exhibition History"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscription: The photograph is inscribed in pencil, verso, lower left: "`California 1996' ©Taiji Matsue"

The photograph is signed in pencil, verso, lower center.

the photograph is stamped in blue in the lower right and the lower left corners "9706"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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