Lucinda Devlin: Lake Pictures

Description

Lake Pictures is a series of photographs of Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes bordering the state of Michigan. The pictures - taken at the same place, during the four seasons, and at different times of day and night - explore the changing atmospheric nature of the lake through the prisms of water, sky, color, light, place, space and time. Looking at this immense body of water and the sky above, both initially seem boundless, as if stretching forever into the distance. Only the fine horizon line between the two separates and joins them, pulling us into each photo and reminding us that this sense of infinity is but an intriguing optical fiction. More than a lake: the lake, the sea. Devlin's pictures show everything, from a honey-yellow pool to a raging sea; we see the grayish-brown abyss, the opaque, rippling navy blue, a melancholy carpet ...and the slate-like idleness. All this is a result of her morning, midday, evening and nighttime visits to the shoreline. It looks as though the photographer has consulted the Great Lake like an oracle. Ulf Erdmann Ziegler

Lucinda Devlin, born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1947, grew up surrounded by the Great Lakes and rural landscapes. Devlin has received numerous awards (including those from the NEA and DAAD) and her work is held in several museums, such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the DZ Bank Collection. Devlin has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe including at the Venice Biennale. Steidl has published her The Omega Suites (2000) and Water Rites (2003).