Mohammad Ghazali. Untitled, from Tehran a Little to the Right, 2010-2013; expired Polaroid film; 3 3/8 x 4 1/4 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Ag Galerie, Tehran.

The 1970s saw the rise of an active market for photography collection. In 1981, photography critic Gene Thornton reflected on the gains photography made in that decade, and on its evolving position in the art world. In the New York Times, he wrote, “Photography has so recently begun to be taken seriously by museums, collectors, and critics that it may be presumptuous to ask what its present state is. It has been recognized as art, hasn’t it?”[1]

Taking Thornton’s position, then, what is the state of photography as demonstrated within the stalls and storefronts of Paris Photo? Contemporary artists are playing with scale, investigating serial forms, and manipulating photographic processes. Unglee, a French artist with an enigmatic biography, takes hundreds of photographs of tulips. Presented either individually—with a level of detail and sensuousness evocative of a Georgia O’Keefe flower painting—or as masses of subtly distinctive Polaroids, Unglee’s examination verges on the fetishistic.

Floris Neusüss. Nachtbild (48), 1991; photogram, unique; 68 x 42 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Von Lintel Gallery, Los Angeles.

Many galleries go for spectacle-inducing, vivid large-scale prints, or on the opposite end of the spectrum, tiny, intimate, exquisitely detailed 4-by-6-inch images. There seems to be no happy medium. Floris Neusüss’ gigantic photograms envelop the viewer in black-and-white, abstract geometries. From the series Nachtstükke, Nachtbild (1991) was made at night, in a garden, by exposing photosensitive paper to a shock of bright light. The resulting image is a dense kaleidoscope of foliage made immersive through its great size. Neusüss employs the spectacle of sheer size to make a natural scene feel new. On the opposite end of the scale are works like Mohammad Ghazali’s Polaroids from the series Tehran a Little to the Right (2010–13). For each photograph, the artist revisited places in Tehran where protesters gathered after Iran’s contentious 2009 elections. Ghazali used expired Polaroid film, which resulted in unpredictable white blotches and a strange greenish-yellow cast that gives the streetscapes a surreal, nearly unrecognizable quality. At just 3 by 4 inches, Ghazali’s pictures draw the viewers in, allowing the political undercurrent to unfurl and sink in.

CJ Heylinger. Hell Mirage #1, 2015; archival inkjet print, 60 x 48 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

This is not to say that all of these photographic interests are entirely revolutionary. Indeed, scale, seriality, and manipulation have deep roots as rich arenas for photographic investigation. C.J. Heyliger, an MFA candidate at UCLA, manipulates exposure and his film to create fragmented and distorted images of the landscape, as in Hell Mirage #1 (2015). Heyliger’s textured, almost pleated surfaces echo Harry Callahan’s play with multiple exposures in his images of trees. Likewise, both Ghazali’s and Unglee’s use of the Polaroid as their preferred film format draws on a diverse lineage of artists that includes Lucas Samaras and Robert Heinecken. As such, what makes Paris Photo unique is not the setting, on the Paramount Pictures lot with a mix of traditional white-box spaces, and quirky storefronts on the life-size set of New York. Rather, it’s the ability to see in one day, or one weekend, a diversity of perspectives on the state of photography. To answer Thornton’s question, photography is decidedly an art, and one that is still ripe for investigation.

Paris Photo LA was on view in Los Angeles from May 1–3, 2015.

[1] Gene Thornton, “Photography View,” The New York Times, September 6, 1981.

With butterflies, silk flowers, spiderwebs, mirrors, camouflage, and gold, Jim Hodges draws in space. Constantly assembling and disassembling natural imagery and everyday items, he creates objects and installations that invite viewers to consider mortality and memory. Co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center, Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take is the first comprehensive survey in the United States on the work of the New York–based artist. With nearly 75 pieces made from 1987 through the present, the exhibition brings together photographs, drawings, objects, and several room-size installations, showcasing Hodges’ commitment to probing yet poignant investigations of space and materiality.

Jim Hodges. Deformed, 1989; altered shopping bag; 30 1/2 × 34 in. Photo by Ronald Amstutz. © Jim Hodges.

Hodges began his career making objects from the dirt and waste around him, often destroying the finished result. This fascination with creation through destruction emerges early in the exhibition. In Deformed (1989), the artist deconstructs a purple pansy-printed paper shopping bag, splitting it along its seams. Installed flat and pinned to the wall, the resulting cruciform is an enigmatic totem. Likewise, in A Line to You (1994), Changing Things (1997), and You (1997), Hodges disassembles vibrant silk flowers, reassembling them variously into a vertical garland, an abstract wall drawing, and a vibrant tapestry. Hodges carefully transforms these everyday materials into poetic, ethereal objects that are like three-dimensional paintings.

Jim Hodges. Ghost, 2008; glass sculpture in multiple parts; 35 × 22 × 22 in. overall. Private collection, London. Photo by Stephen White; courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. © Jim Hodges.

Jim Hodges. Ghost (detail), 2008; glass sculpture in multiple parts; 35 × 22 × 22 in. overall. Private collection, London. Photo by Stephen White; courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. © Jim Hodges.

Hodges’ commitment to drawing as his medium is evident throughout the exhibition, but particularly near its conclusion. One of the last spaces the viewer moves through is a corridor with twenty-one wood-grain drawings from the series On the Way Between Places (2009) lining the walls. Here the artist combines charcoal with his own saliva to make a forest, reconstructed not from observations of nature, but rather from his own remembrance of it. A similar play with artificial constructions of the natural world is echoed in a nearby gallery with Ghost (2008) as its focal point. The artist assembles a realistic miniature environment enclosed by a bell jar and made entirely of glass butterflies, spiders, and other insects, perched on a mound of dirt sprouting greenery and flowers. Rising in the center of the terrarium and towering over the other elements is a clear crystal plant—a literal ghost haunting its livelier neighbors. The intimate scale and choice of materials underscores the preciousness of the natural world.

Jim Hodges. On the Way Between Places (21 of 21), 2009; charcoal, saliva on paper; 30 × 22 1/2 in. Photo by Ronald Amstutz. © Jim Hodges.

Formally evoking Lee Bontecou’s wall-mounted, black hole-esque sculptures, Hodges’ The Dark Gate (2008) explores perception, the power of scent to evoke memory, and the void. The viewer enters through a set of swinging wood doors and arrives in a square chamber made of wood planks, nestled within a pitch-black gallery. The wall immediately opposite the entrance confronts the viewer with a window, sharp steel blades protruding from its frame to form a threatening circular opening. Emanating from the razor-sharp tips of the knives is the musky, amber fragrance Shalimar—the perfume the artist’s mother favored—combined with a cologne Hodges wore at the time of her passing. The heady scent, in conjunction with the menacing blades and confined space, makes for an oppressive, claustrophobic experience. This is amplified when the viewer exits the inner chamber and enters the dark void of the gallery surrounding it. Moving around the center structure, the outer room is so effectively darkened as to make the space feel disconcertingly endless. Hodges presents the viewer with a confounding choice: confront the dim unknown or remain on its sharp precipice.

Jim Hodges. The Dark Gate, 2008; wood, steel, electric light, perfume, paint, flooring; 96 × 96 × 96 in. structure; overall dimensions variable. Private collection. © Jim Hodges.

Immediately preceding The Dark Gate, the viewer passes through a narrow corridor dotted with a selection from Hodges’ Movements series of wall-mounted sculptures. Each consists of shattered mirror bits mounted on canvas and arranged into seemingly random patterns. In Movements (Stage IV) (2009), Hodges’ oft-recurring spiderweb motif glints in the partial orb. Theatrically spot-lit like a disco ball, the mirrored fragments reflect light, illuminating the ceiling. Walking through the corridor is like moving through a solar system of these celestial objects, their light at times reflecting on the viewer’s body. The contrast in experience between Movements and The Dark Gate marks only one of the juxtapositions in this thoughtfully curated show. Give More Than You Take elucidates Hodges’ knack for creating immersive and engaging objects that register on several emotional levels.

Jim Hodges. Movements (Stage IV), 2009; mirror on canvas; 57 × 96 in. Collection Barbara Zomlefer Herzberg; courtesy McCabe Fine Art, New York. Photo by Ronald Amstutz. © Jim Hodges.

Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take is on view at the Walker Art Center through May 11, 2014.

[1] Olga Viso, “Choreographing Experiences in Space: Olga Viso Interviews Hodges,” http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2014/jim-hodges-olga-viso