Misha Gordin Press

VERVE Gallery of Photography Presents
Opening Reception: Friday, June 15, 2012, 5-7pm
Exhibition is on view through Saturday, August 18, 2012
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VERVE Gallery of Photography is pleased to present Shadows of the Dream a solo
exhibition of the handmade silver gelatin prints by conceptual artist photographer,
Misha Gordin.
Misha Gordin introduces the visitor to his website with a poem, I Remember:
I remember life after the war.
Hiding in the ruins of bombed buildings.
The man with no legs pushing his way on a tiny platform.
I remember playing alone.
We did not have any toys.
I remember the stale smell of dark corridors.
I remember the forest full of secrets.
I remember faces that never smiled.
Misha’s childhood recollections are of moving back home to war-ravaged Riga, Latvia
at the end of World War II. The Soviets occupied Latvia at the war’s end. Throughout
his stay in Riga, Misha lived amongst the Russian-speaking population. This experience
as a young person proved to be formative. He was graduated from technical school as
an aviation engineer although he never practiced that profession. Rather, he joined the
Riga Motion Film Studios as an engineer designing equipment for special effects.
Misha had no formal education in Western art. And, throughout his time in Riga,
Social Realism was the “official” and dominant artistic style throughout Communist
Europe. More often than not, Social Realism was used for Soviet propaganda, a “move
away from (Western) decadent bourgeois art”.
Gordin began his photographic career at the age of 16. He recalls being moved by a
desire to create his own personal style, so as to realize his voice. His early work was
portraiture and some documentary photographs. It proved unsatisfactory. He took
time off away from photography and concentrated on reading (Fyodor Dostoevsky and
Mikhail Bulgakov) and in examining the cinematography of Andrei Tarkovsky and
Sergei Parajanov. Misha used this period to explore ways to express his personal
feelings through the photographic medium.
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It came to him a year later, “clearly and simply”. Misha decided to photograph a
“concept”, an idea, rather than trying to “capture a decisive moment” in a portrait,
landscape, or documentary scene. He looked to create and photograph a decisive
intuitive vision. In 1972 he imagined and visualized an image. He then staged it;
photographed it; and, in the darkroom manipulated the projected image that appeared
on his easel to achieve his concept in a print; thus, creating a conceptual photograph.
This first print was entitled Confession. The black and white print presents a bleak,
barren landscape with a dark, moody and windy sky. Two naked figures, a man and a
woman, face one another. The man, apparently on his knees, beats a bass drum while
the woman has a wheelbarrow full of dismembered doll body parts. The viewer is
meant to discern the meaning of this image through introspection.
Confession is an image within the body of work “Shadows of the Dream”. Misha
Gordin pointed his camera “inward, toward my soul”, so as to listen to his own inner
voice. He thus transformed his idea into reality in the form of a photographic print. An
altered reality is the essence of conceptual photography. Misha describes it this way:
“For the last 40 years I have been involved in conceptual photography, where the idea
or vision is transformed by the camera into an image, connected to reality only by my
imagination.”
Misha eschews talking about the technical aspects of his work. “It diminishes the
power of the image.” Nevertheless, it is all done in a conventional darkroom with a
single enlarger. Gordin does not manipulate his images digitally. Misha sketches his
ideas before he begins to photograph. He started this process long before the era of
computer manipulated imagery. However, he will tell you: “My technique is
unforgiving and laborious. Mistakes can be made, but not corrected. A trace of fear of
making a mistake is present in every single image I make, as is the precision of every
move and the complete concentration necessary for my repetitive steps.”1 His time,
both in his studio and in the darkroom, is measured by weeks rather than hours.
Gordin spends time making multiple negatives and using as many as 100 negatives
before the final print is made. He has, over the many years, developed a very
sophisticated masking technique. “In a darkroom, I don’t see the darkness. I see the
excitement of a room filled with expectations. After working on a print for many long
days, I immerse the silver paper into the warm chemicals and with the palms of my
hands gently push it under the surface. The timer counts the seconds. The image
slowly reveals itself with glowing brilliance.”
1 http://www.thornwoodgallery.com/common/biopopup.php?galleryId=1CD7-FEAH-6E59&artistId=14910
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He concludes: “In all my years of creating conceptual images, I have tried to make
them as realistic as possible. The plausibility of my scenes is not the most important
part; they function in such a way that the question “Is it real?” does not arise. The
authenticity that I present is that of an interior moment, so that my viewers may trust
and react to the conceptual truths that they may know to be external fictions. I don’t
interpret my images. I feel them. Nevertheless, I always encourage my viewers to
interpret my work as they see or feel it. My goal is to create an image that talks…..”,
that speaks to the viewer. Thus, the viewer is left to experience, to see, and to feel the
emotional resonance created by Misha Gordin’s visual metaphor in countless unique
ways. It is as if one were suspended in a black and white dream staring inward and
seeing the world in its most essential elements.
In 1974, Misha left Latvia and immigrated to the United States.
The images in this exhibition at VERVE Gallery are all silver gelatin prints assembled in
a traditional darkroom from a multitude of original negatives. The show images come
from four bodies of work, “Shadows of the Dream”, “Tomas”, “Crowd”, and “New
Crowd”. While the print edition numbers were larger in numbers in “Shadows…..”,
the prints of all later work are in limited editions, seven (7) numbered prints and three
(3) Artist Proofs of each image.
In his earliest body of work, “Shadows of the Dream”, each image is titled. The focus
for the viewer is usually one or two human figures at some task. In Renunciation a
male nude figure is seen bathing in the ocean, washing his face, in the vanishing light
of dusk. On the desolate beach are six burlap bags. Two of the bags are partially open
suggesting that the contents of all the bags are white mime-like masks. The masks
appear to be the bather’s sole article of clothing. The symbolism is poignant. As is the
case with all of Misha Gordin’s images, they are surreal and profoundly existential. It
is for the viewer to discover the significance of this image. Is the bather a buffoon, a
jester, a fool, a mime, a droll, a humorist, a boor, a yahoo, a galoot, a wit, a
comic,…..? And, more importantly, who embodies the bather? Is it, perhaps…? PAGE 4 of 10
Renunciation, 1978, 18x14”, Gelatin silver print, Edition of 50
As Misha Gordin perfected his masking techniques in the darkroom, his images
became increasingly more complex. In the “Crowd” series no image has a specific
title. Instead they are all generically named “Crowd” followed by a number. Without a
title the viewer has no hint of the print’s possible meaning(s). These newer
photographs contain twenty or more persons. Some images are graphically compelling
and beautiful. The artist has constructed what appear to be sinuous shadows, perfectly
symmetrical black and gray contour lines on the backs of twenty or more human
subjects in the photograph. Yet, these same figures remain haunting, naked but not
erotic, all sensuous, graceful, and elegant, all posed identically.
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New Crowd #46, 2000, 25x37.5”, Gelatin silver print, Edition of 7
Another image seen in the collection “Crowd” appears to be taken looking down on
twenty-two symmetrically crowded bald, hairless, heads—a Greek chorus of faceless
figures. One person is looking to the heavens with eyes closed and mouth open in
what “appears” to be an agonizingly painful scream. New Crowd #62, 2004, 25x37.5”, Gelatin silver print, Edition of 7
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In another image fifteen persons, all masked and cloaked as acolytes in black sit on a
black bleacher. Each figure is holding one puppet, each puppet an inanimate white
miniature skeleton, each skeleton dancing.
Crowd 35, 1991, 19x14”, Gelatin silver print, Edition of 7
Who are these bound figures huddled in perfectly arranged rows? Who are these four
so weighted down with heavy iron “I” beams? What is the meaning of the Sisyphean
figure rolling large human size sand balls into neat and orderly patterned rows? What
is one to make of these provocative mysterious allegories? Misha Gordin’s images
open doors into one’s own psyche and compel us to examine our own meanings. Poet
and critic John Wood, the editor of the 21st Editions, says of Misha Gordin’s work,
“The signature of Misha Gordin and the essence of his art is empathy. Gordin is not a
recorder of the grief and pain of a particular person or group. It is the grief and struggle
of all humankind.”
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Tomas III, 2002, 26x35”, Gelatin silver print, Edition of 7
Prisoner of Memory, 1983, 18x13”, Gelatin silver print, Edition of 45
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MISHA GORDIN – CURRICULUM VITAE
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010 Thornwood Gallery, Dallas, Texas
2007 Foto Art Festival, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri
2006 Chiaroscuro Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Flanders Contemporary, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2005 Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Volakis Gallery, Napa, California
2004 Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
2003 Lew Allen Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska
2002 J.J. Brookings Gallery, San Francisco, California
2001 Flanders Contemporary, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Galerie Waldburger, Berlin, Germany
1996 Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1995 Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Thomson Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1994 North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Klein Art Works, Chicago, Illinois
Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
1993 Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, Michigan
1992 Bentley / Tomlinson Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1991 Mark Masuoka Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada
1989 Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
1987 Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
1986 Habitat Galleries, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida
1984 Nagsse Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan
1982 Everson Museum of Arts, Syracuse, New York
Jessy Besser Museum, Alpena, Michigan
Halsted Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
1981 Gilbert Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1980 Kiva Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
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Selected Awards:
2000
1988
1987
1985
1984
1983
1980
1979
Minnesota State Arts Board, Photography Fellowship
Michigan Consul for the Arts, Creative Artist Grant
Michigan Arts Award, Arts Foundation of Michigan
National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist Grant
FIAP Gold Medal, International Photosalon, Reims, France
Niepce Medal, International Photosalon, Reims, France
PSA Gold Medal, Denain, France
PSA Gold Medal, International Photosalon, Bordeaux, France
Selected Collections:
Art Institute of Chicago
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
International Museum of Photography, Rochester, New York
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York
Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Toledo Museum of Arts, Toledo, Ohio
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Illinois
Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, Michigan
Selected Publications:
Le Monde 2 - France, cover, January 2009
I-MAG photography - Philippines, cover, volume 2
Hidden - published by Palace Press International. 2007
Crowd - published by 21st photography. 2007
Shadows - published by 21st photography. 2007
Photo Art - Czech Republic, cover March 2007
Digital Photographer – Ukraine, April 2006
Photo Magazine – Romania, March 2006
Schwarzweiss 47 - Germany, cover August/September 2005
Periferca – Portugal, cover, September 2003
Photovision – USA, cover, September / October 2002
Black & White Magazine – USA, cover, Issue 11, February
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