John Divola

In 1973, California artist John Divola began the first of three highly ambitious and original bodies of work that form "Three Acts, " the first book dedicated to them. His "Vandalism" series comprises black-and-white photographs of interiors of abandoned houses. Entering illegally, Divola spray-painted markings that referenced action painting as readily as the graffiti that was then becoming a cultural phenomenon. For the following year's "Los Angeles International Airport Noise Abatement" series, he photographed a condemned neighborhood bought out to serve as a noise buffer for new runways, focusing on evidence of previous unsanctioned entries by other vandals. His final work, "Zuma, " documents the destruction of an abandoned beachfront property by the artist and others, as it deteriorates frame by frame and eventually burns. Divola has much in common with artists such as Bruce Nauman and Robert Smithson who have used photography to investigate other topics. He describes his innovative practice succinctly: "My acts, my painting, my photographing, my considering, are part of, not separate from, this process of evolution and change. My participation was not so much one of intellectual consideration as one of visceral involvement."

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 141
Publication date: 2006-05-01
Measurements: 11.26 x 9.48 x 0.78 inches
ISBN: 9781931788953

David Campany is a writer, curator and artist, working mainly with photography. David s books include The Open Road: photographic road trips across America (2014), Walker Evans: the magazine work (2014), Gasoline (2013), Jeff Wall: Picture for Women (2010), Photography and Cinema (2008) and Art and Photography (2003). He also writes for Frieze, Aperture, Art Review, FOAM, Source, Photoworks and Tate magazine. Recent curatorial projects include Lewis Baltz: Common Objects (Le Bal, Paris 2014), Walker Evans: magazine work (Foto Museum Antwerp 2014), Victor Burgin: A Sense of Place (AmbikaP3 London, 2013), Mark Neville: Deeds Not Words (The Photographers Gallery London, 2013) and Anonymes: Unnamed America in Photography and Film (Le Bal Paris, 2010). David has a Phd and teaches at the University of Westminster, London. For his writing, David has received the ICP Infinity Award, the Kraszna-Krauss Book Award, a Deutscher Fotobuchpreis, and the Royal Photographic Society s award for writing.