Flat Earth

By Suzanne Révy

Employing a large format 7”x17” banquet camera, artist Lois Conner has photographed landscapes in China, Europe, South America and the American west throughout her career. In “Flat Earth,” on view at Robert Klein Gallery in Boston through May 21st, 2022, Conner presents sweeping multiple-panel landscapes as gelatin silver contact prints along with a selection of stunning platinum prints made with an 8”x10” camera. This immersive exhibition reveres the earth and invites quiet contemplation. 

“Canyon de Chelly, Arizona” by Lois Conner, 2010, from the exhibit Flat Earth, five 7″x17″ gelatin silver contact prints, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.

Installation view of “Canyon de Chelly” (detail) by Lois Conner on view in Flat Earth at Robert Klein Gallery, Boston. (Photograph by Suzanne Révy).

“Kashgar, Xinjiang, China” by Lois Conner, 1991, from the exhibit Flat Earth, three 7″x17″ gelatin silver contact prints, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.

Installation view of “Kashgar, Xinjiang, China” by Lois Conner, 1991, from the exhibit Flat Earth on view at Robert Klein Gallery.  (Photograph by Suzanne Révy).

At a recent opening reception, Conner described wanting to construct a continuum of the landscape by translating 180 to 360 degree views into two dimensional photographs. She is inspired by Chinese scroll paintings, and built vitrines that resemble the tables where scrolls can be studied. Her western landscapes and Chinese views recall the detailed survey photographs of Carlton Watkins or Eadweard Muybridge, but rather than simply describing the place, she endows the vast mesas and rock formations or rolling meadows and trees with an elongated sense of serenity.  

“Iguazu Falls, Argentina” by Lois Conner, 2005, from the exhibit Flat Earth, three 17″x7″ gelatin silver contact prints, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.

Installation view of “Iguazu Falls, Argentina” by Lois Conner on view in Flat Earth at Robert Klein Gallery, Boston. (Photograph by Suzanne Révy).

Featured Image: “Xi Hu, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China” by Lois Conner, 1994, from the exhibit Flat Earth, five 17″x7″ silver gelatin contact prints, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.

In some, she turns the camera to a vertical orientation to emphasize the height of  towering trees, monumental rocky formations or dramatic waterfalls that are ethereal and surreal. In one made at Iguazu Falls in Argentina, for example, Conner’s slow shutter allows the atmosphere to breathe and the water’s undulating movements to become a veil of silk. She entices viewers into an encounter with an otherworldly place.

“Nancy Nelson, Gramercy Park” by Lois Conner, 1976, from the exhibit Flat Earth, vintage platinum print, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.

“Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania” by Lois Conner, 1979-83, from the series Flat Earth, vintage platinum print, courtesy of the artist and Robert Klein Gallery, Boston.

And in a surprising twist, smaller 8”x10” platinum prints – several portraits, alongside studies of trees from her native Pennsylvania – are installed on the walls around the gallery. Ordinarily, I would have expected the wider format landscapes to be framed and mounted on the walls, with her smaller, more intimate prints placed in the vitrines, but it works here. Conner moves slowly, whether with portraiture or observing landscapes around the world. Paying keen attention to light and form, she instills a sense of geological time and eternity to her pictures. 

For more information go to: https://www.robertkleingallery.com