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Douglas Bohr
Since the mid-1970s, James Casebere has photographed tabletop-sized models that he constructs of Styrofoam, paper, plaster, and various other model-making materials. The precise, complex models are based on real and imagined landscapes and architecture ranging from the Eastern Pennsylvania State Penitentiary to Jefferson's Monticello and the Nevisian Underground. In the artist's studio, the models are painted, dramatically lit, and deliberately photographed from various points of view, but ultimately abandoned or salvaged like any film or stage set. The photographs are Casebere's representation of his own construction; a re-construction and re-presentation of the artist's own rendering. The most recent photographs are enlarged to such an extent as to make the structures appear life-size, far beyond the scale of the models. Standing before them it is as if we could step into the space, a space as "concrete" as the walls of a prison cell, or Jefferson's Monticello. As with any illusory image, the internal structure of Casebere's images supports - props up, if you will - the intangible qualities that seem so palpable at first glance. The studio lamplight appears ethereal through the crafted windows. Where light strikes a floor or reflects off the surface of water, it affirms a corporeal presence, as if this water were flowing through centuries old architecture. The austere beauty is spectacular in and of itself; so seductive that the observer may be unwilling to expose it, wanting to believe that it could be real. Ironically, this infatuation distances the observer, preventing him or her from recognizing any facade.
And while there is no apparent correlation to any scripted narrative, these images nevertheless seem to allude to a past, present and future. Due to a lack of any human presence, an anxious observer might imagine a human story within the abandoned spaces, or, at least, wonder why it is that these spaces are chosen; what has happened here to warrant our attention. To further compound this, these are not necessarily abstract, nameless spaces as I mentioned. Instead, they appear to be places of vast historical or cultural significance. There is human drama, not to mention history, embedded in these spaces. How does one reconcile this with the fact that these spaces are fabricated? In so many ways, Casebere's work sets the stage for a compelling look into the connection between the perception of reality and the virtual realm of photography. (…)
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