{"id":1977,"date":"2010-10-15T17:06:02","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T01:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2010-10-15T17:23:46","modified_gmt":"2010-10-16T01:23:46","slug":"robert-fischer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/15\/robert-fischer-1977\/","title":{"rendered":"Between the Psychological Legs"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first laid eyes on “Elder,” one of\u00a0nearly forty photos in Robert Fischer’s solo show\u00a0\u201cMark: Subject\/Object\/Collaborator\u201d at Autobody Fine Art in Alameda, I murmured, “fuuuuuck….” Perhaps it was not the most eloquent response or scholarly interpretation, but the reaction it evokes is that visceral. “Elder” is simple, direct, unflinching, unapologetic, and arresting. It stares you down. It challenges you. It dares you.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"Elder"<\/p><\/div>\n

I told the artist that it is one of the most powerful portraits I have ever seen,\u00a0and he replied that\u00a0Mark, the subject of the photo, did not recognize himself when he saw it. Perhaps that is the key to the dynamic between this photographer and his model: Mark trusts Fisher completely and gives himself over to his direction, creating entirely new personas.\u00a0Fischer wrote, “I crawl between the psychological legs of my subjects. They trust me. This provides them the freedom to give up to me who they are, their real selves.”<\/p>\n

In fact, not until I spoke with Mark did I understand that this exhibit\u00a0comprises a decade of portraits of a single model. I still didn’t believe it.<\/p>\n

“Is this one you?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yes, they’re all me.”<\/p>\n

“And this one?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yes, that one too.”<\/p>\n

“Even this one?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“All of them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"

"P.S. Sunday Morning" and "Magrite Schpin"<\/p><\/div>\n

For this show Autobody gave free rein to Fischer’s representative, William Torphy Fine Art. Per Torphy,\u00a0they were the de facto curators, selecting from this series of more than a hundred images. And these images are gorgeous.\u00a0They are portraits, figurative, and narrative pieces. Kitchy and somber. Black-and-white and in full\u00a0neon color. Unaltered and heavily manipulated.\u00a0Printed on aluminum, paper and, in the case of\u00a0 “Red Baaaaack,” the material used to skin buses for full body advertisements.\u00a0Large, meticulously printed and installed, nearly every piece is extraordinary.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"Red Baaaaack" and "Velveteen Rabbit"<\/p><\/div>\n

In December and January Autobody will exhibit work by returning artists Ken Davis and Renee Castro. And then that will likely be the end\u00a0of Autobody Fine Art, \u00a0at least in its current incarnation, as they expect to close their doors in\u00a0the new year.\u00a0If that is the case, with last month’s solo exhibition by James Shefik<\/a> and this one by Robert Fischer, they are going out with a bang.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Mark: Subject\/Object\/Collaborator” runs through December 5. Autobody Fine Art<\/a> is located at 1517 Park Street, Alameda, CA 94501. Their hours are Wed – Sun, noon – 6PM.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first laid eyes on “Elder,” one of\u00a0nearly forty photos in Robert Fischer’s solo show\u00a0\u201cMark: Subject\/Object\/Collaborator\u201d at Autobody Fine Art in Alameda, I murmured, “fuuuuuck….” Perhaps it was not the most eloquent response or scholarly interpretation, but the reaction it evokes is that visceral. “Elder” is simple, direct, unflinching, unapologetic, and arresting. It stares […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[73,118,211,219,220,218],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-raves","tag-alameda","tag-autobody-fine-art","tag-james-shefik","tag-ken-davis","tag-renee-castro","tag-robert-fischer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-vT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":70,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2067,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}