David Zimmerman - Last Refuge E-Catalog

560 BROADWAY #205 NEW YORK , NY 10012 TEL : 212.966.0796 WWW.SOUSLESETOILESGALLERY.NET

DAVID ZIMMERMANLAST REFUGE

The series Last refuge has been exhibited for the first time atSous Les Etoiles Gallery from Dec 8th 2011, to Jan 28th, 2012.

560 BROADWAY #205 NEW YORK , NY 10012 TE L : 212 .966 .0796 WWW.SOUSLESETO I LESGAL LERY.NET

DAVID ZIMMERMAN LAST REFUGE

About Last Refuge

“The focus of much of my work for the past fifteen years has been photographing at-risk landscapes. Many of these places are threatened, or have already been altered by sprawl and super-malls, military activity, diverted resources, energy exploration and a changing climate.

Over the years as I’ve traveled throughout the U.S., I’ve seen greatly increasing numbers of people living at subsistence levels.

The ranks of lone drifters have been joined by the unexpected arrival of a 50 year old teacher living in her car, an Ivy League graduate sleeping in a box and a 75 year old widow living with her cat in the back of a pickup truck. People were coping with survival in a new reality.

Haphazard communities have evolved in remote areas where there is no electricity or water. Some of these people were defiant while others were resolved, but what they had in common was that all were living on the fringes of society. Home for most was an abandoned car, a dilapidated camper or some primitive shelter constructed from scrap. Mud and straw were used in a futile attempt to insulate the flimsy cardboard and tarp walls.

While living amongst a group of families in the desert, I came across an odd pile of clothing which had been beaten for years by the relentless climate. There is a hidden beauty in many things, and the pile of abandoned clothing attracted me at first by its palette and form, and by its odd 2-dimensionality.

Then I met the man who lived beneath it. His shelter was a hole in the ground, roofed with tin and supported by an abandoned refrigerator. He scavenged for discarded clothing that became thatch for the roof to repel the scorching summer sun and to insulate against the frigid winter nights. This weather beaten pile of clothing became an inventory of human existence.”

David Zimmerman

The interaction between space and identity is a strong concern of the photographer David Zimmerman. With acuteness and talent, he explores the territories made by contiguity, infinity and exclusion where the human being is vulnerable.

With Last Refuge, his new series, David Zimmerman brings us to New Mexico’s vast desert, where a community of people, who by choice or by circumstance, live in a place with no electricity or water. These people are not outcasts or drifters however - on the contrary; they are quite happy to live on the fringe, as far as possible from the mainstream. Their homes are primitive shelters fashioned from good intentions, scraps, and eventually clothing. As the weight of the roofs eventually collapsed on homes, people moved on.

“There is a hidden beauty in many things, and the pile of abandoned clothing attracted me at first by its palette and form and its odd 2-dimensionality - having been beaten for decades by the relentless desert climate“ said the photographer. Clothing is the primary protection for human beings, and when nothing else is left; it stands as their last land and home. In a surgical close-up and focus on garments, with the density, the contrast, and the sharpness of all details, his work appears to be a true archeology of the human soul.

Even though the clothes are damaged or forgotten, the remnants depict an individual challenge, an individual journey questioning our own identity and how to accept and overcome a fluctuating reality.

Zimmerman’s series reveals the balance between a wandering and sedentary life. Here lives the desire to escape, an ability to settle and the strength to move forward.

Corinne Tapia, Gallery Director



Solo Exhibitions

2011 Center for Fine Art Photography. Ft Collins, CO. Desert series. Nov 4 – Dec 312011 Hulse Warman Gallery. Taos, NM. Desert series. 2010 Thessaloniki Cultural Museum. Thessaloniki, Greece. Barriers series.2010 Harwood Museum of Art. Taos, NM. Landscape series. 2010 A. Galerie. Paris, France. Desert series. 2010 Palais des Festivals World Photography Awards. Cannes, France.

Group Exhibitions

2011 HotShoe Gallery. London, UK. Landscape series. December2011 Soho Photo Gallery. New York City. Desert series. November2011 Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography, Last Refuge. October2011 Harwood Museum of Art. Taos, NM. New Mexorado exhibition.2010 Gallery Caprice Horn. Berlin, Germany. Desert series.2010 Capital Culture. London, United Kingdom. Landscape series.2009 Hearst 8x10 Photography Biennial. New York City. Landscape series.2009 Center for Fine Art Photography, Desert series. “Art in Nature”, Jurors and Directors selection Award.2009 Ardel Gallery of Modern Art. Bangkok, Thailand. Desert series. 2009 The Center for Fine Art Photography. Ft Collins, CO. Salton Sea project. “Works of Man” exhibition. (Chris Jordan, juror) 2009 Galerie Esther Woerdehoff. Paris, France.2009 Fraser Gallery, Bethesda MD. Desert Landscapes. Best in Show. Juried group show.

About David Zimmerman

David Zimmerman is an American artist born in 1955 in Milwaukee,WI.

His interest in the arts began at an early age working primarily in sculpture and painting. He developed his interest in photography, in his early twenties while living and working in Europe and the Middle East. Upon returning to the U.S. David Zimmerman attended Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California studying with many great contemporaries of the time.

After moving with his wife to New York City, he opened in 1984, his studio and began a career photographing landscape, environmental and fine art projects.

David Zimmerman has received a number of awards and recognition for his work over the years. He is the recipient of the Sony World Photography Awards L’Iris D’or Grand Prize for his work in the Deserts of the Southwest U.S.

He currently works between New York City and Taos, New Mexico.

“...a unique vision of beauty, poetry and power possible in great landscape photography.”

Mary Ellen Mark

“Both image and meaning coincide in the imagery of photographer David Zimmerman. In his sensuous sharp focus, we become more aware of where we are as humans in the drifting sands of time.”

Bruce Davidson


Untitled 60, 2011, 30 x 40 in.


Archival Pigment Print



Untitled 67, 2011, 30 x 40 in. Archival Pigment Print









































Untitled 6030 x 40 in. Ed. of 8 + 2AP2011$4,800









Prices quoted do not include NY sales Tax (tax will be added if applicable)

All the photographs from the series Last Refuge are Archival Pigment Prints.















They are available in these three following sizes:

Small format20 x 26.7 inEd. of 12 + 2 AP2011

$ 3,800

Medium format30 x 40 in. Ed. of 8 + 2AP2011

$ 4,800

Large format45 x 60 in. Ed. of 3 + 2AP2011

$ 7,200


About the photographs details & prices

560 BROADWAY #205 NEW YORK , NY 10012 TE L : 212 .966 .0796 INFO@SOUSLESETO I LESGAL LERY.NET WWW.SOUSLESETO I LESGAL LERY.NET

Documents

David Zimmerman - Last Refuge E-Catalog