Andrea Robbins & Max Becher: Portraits

by Max Becher (Photographer), Andrea Robbins (Photographer), Maurice Berger (Text by)

Overview

This volume is the first to examine the portrait photographs of this esteemed husband-and-wife team. The artists' portraits—like their radical landscapes and city-scenes—are powerfully evocative, boldly subverting our expectations of the discipline of portraiture: Rather than capturing the visual essence of a sitter, they reveal identity to be multifarious, transitive and culturally and historically bound. They capture their subjects in ways that transform, enhance and accentuate social and cultural meaning, doing so with the full complicity and respect of the people they photograph. Robbins and Becher spend weeks living with each community they document. They immerse themselves in the stories of its citizens and history, interviewing residents, participating in their customs, photographing them at work, play and home. Most important, they allow their subjects to represent themselves—not only as they would like to been seen, but in ways that illuminate their complex humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781890761110
Publisher:	UMBC
Publication date:	02/01/2008
Series:	Issues in Cultural Theory Ser.
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	12.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

American-born artist Andrea Robbins and German-born artist Max Becher both received BFAs from Cooper Union in New York City. They have had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco and elsewhere. Their work has appeared in group exhibitions in venues including the Guggenheim Bilbao, the International Center of Photography, the New Museum, Dia Art Foundation, the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art. They are represented in New York by Sonnabend Gallery, and their work is in major collections such as the International Center of Photography, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum.

U.S.-born Andrea Robbins and German Max Becher both received BFAs from Cooper Union. They have had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco and elsewhere. Their work has appeared in group exhibitions in venues including the Guggenheim Bilbao, the International Center of Photography, the New Museum, Dia Art Foundation, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. They are represented in New York by the Sonnabend Gallery, and their work is in major collections such as the International Center of Photography, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim and the Jewish Museum.

Maurice Berger is the author of White Lies: Race and the Myths of Whiteness.