Bob Tanner: My Downward Gaze
@ Perspective Gallery
1310 Chicago Ave, Evanston, IL 60201
Opening Saturday, October 7th, from 5PM - 7PM
On view through Thursday, October 19th
My Downward Gaze
Bob Tanner has been looking down while photographing for a number of years. It’s kept him from tripping over rocks, roots, and other immobile objects, but primarily it has enabled him to discover almost invisible subjects. In most instances, they are objects or marks that are ephemeral, lasting only a second or two. Other times they might last somewhat longer, perhaps for less time than it takes from sunrise to sunset, never to appear or be repeated exactly again.
The images for At Ocean’s Edge were made in 2017, on the Pacific shore. The time was less than a year after his wife died. Making photographs kept him moving during a time of mourning. Similar to an individual’s life, he watched as the ocean’s waves, wind and tide came and went, each surge creating a unique possibility for him.
Years later, much closer to home, he photographed faint marks found on the floor of a large parking garage. Much time spent in postproduction enabled him to create the prints titled At Winter’s Edge. The movement of cars entering and leaving the garage and the occasional washing of the floor guaranteed the transient nature of each existing mark, and the creation of new ones, reminding him of the ocean’s forces those years before.
Five years almost to the month had passed between the creation of the two series of photographs. The ensuing years had given him time to think, work and grow.
You might ask if he ever looks up to discover a world to photograph above his feet. He has in the past, and he will in the future. Right now he is at work using his downward gaze.
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