Santa Fe, New Mexico
Arena Editions
2001
First edition, first printing
164 p.
cb. with dust jacket
with 85 four-color plates
Buch
"Golden Gate offers yet another dimension to Misrach's artistic output. Three years ago, he and his family moved into a house in the Berkeley Hills of Northern California. Since then, Misrach has been obsessively photographing the magisterial view of the Golden Gate Bridge from his front porch, each photograph taken from the exact same viewpoint at different times of day. The photographs reproduced here, from a series of over seven hundred, capture the opening between bay and ocean, and the famous bridge, in every light and weather condition. The perils of cliché would have overcome most photographers, but Misrach's pictures elevate his subject to the sublime - banks of charcoal cotton or ocher clouds; tangerine, lemon, and rosy sunsets; heavy black storm curtains; and thick rays of light. Like color field painting, these views transcend the ordinary. They are, as the artist states, "an unabashed celebration of the glorious light that is the Golden Gate." But Misrach's Golden Gate photographs also offer a commentary on the politics of the view - the relationship of wealth, power, and privilege at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They stand in and between popular narratives about this region and its unique history – about Alcatraz and Angel Island, the Marin Headlands and the Presidio, the Ferry Pier and the Greensward, all magnificent assets of the Bay Area. Not unlike the grand views of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century painting, the Golden Gate pictures offer more than ocular pleasure – they represent a cultural and political landmark that, often photographed, reveals something deeper under Misrach's penetrating gaze. They are a celebration of the beauty and spectacle of the Golden Gate, but issues of culture and power are embedded just below the surface." (Publisher’s text).