Zach Ritter
Zach Ritter is a writer based in NYC. His writing has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail and Hyperallergic.
Alison Rossiter: Substance of Density, 1918-1948
By Zach RitterDensity 1947 (2020) brings together in a neat grid six pieces of gelatin silver paper drawn from the same box, each exhibiting different levels of oxidation and loss of light sensitivity. The almost uniform copper and gold silhouetting at the edges of five sheets, which frames the nearly bleach-white quality of the papers after Rossiter processes them, is contrasted with the more advanced oxidation of the sixth and topmost sheet from the box, which absorbed the brunt of time’s weathering effect. The result seems an almost organic abstraction, a static-like ripple of gold and white shimmering across the paper.
John Divola: Swimming Drunk
By Zach RitterFor over fifty years John Divola has made photographs which live in the conventional boundary separating the photograph’s function as a document of fact and a producer of fictions. In countless series, the majority of them site-specific, Divola intervenes into the found conditions of his environment, adding both text and graphic elements which provide subtle accents and, in some cases, completely transform the atmosphere of a space.
Bradford Kessler: Become Gift, Sky Become Shadow
By Zach RitterIn Become Gift, Sky Become Shadow a surreal atmosphere of anticipation connects two works that examine cultural myth and personal trauma. Through a combination of theatricality and subtle detail, Bradford Kessler contrasts the generic and fictitious nature of popular history with the textures and temporalities of subjective memory.
Mark McKnight: Hunger for the Absolute
By Zach RitterDrawn almost entirely from his remarkable monograph Heaven Is a Prison (2020), the photographs in Hunger for the Absolute dramatically expand, and forcefully concentrate, McKnight’s previous explorations of the landscape as a transmogrified space of sexual resonance and desire.
Andrea McGinty: Clint Eastwood
By Zach RitterAndrea McGinty’s work has been consistently focused on exploring the aesthetic possibilities inherent in what we consume. Whether it be food or clothing, appliances or cat litter, she draws our attention to the myriad ways in which such objects maintain expressive capacities of their own.
Jordan Weitzman’s Participation
By Zach RitterThe thirty-eight pictures in Participation, Jordan Weitzman’s debut photobook, tell us much about the world of their making.
Phil Jung’s Windscreen
By Zach RitterEschewing the familiar genres of Americana or social documentary, Jung narrowed the scope of his project down to the surfaces and interiors of cars still in use and visible on the street. These photographs capture the feeling of looking into a self-contained world.
