Additional information
by Nicholas Nixon (Author), Fundacion Mapfre (Editor), Carlos Gollonet (Text by (Art/Photo Books))
This book accompanies a comprehensive retrospective based on around 200 photographs by Nicholas Nixon (b. 1947 in Detroit), who has produced one of the most powerful and personal photographic oeuvres of the past few decades. Nixon expresses himself in a poetic voice that is unmistakeable and profoundly original, unaffected by the pressure of contemporary artistic movements and closely connected to reality and life. He returns to the idea of art as an account that can be understood, shared and remembered, establishing a reflexive dialogue and creating a body of work that can trouble us, arouse desires, encourage thought, and transform us. Nixon's photographs can thus be associated with the tradition of documentary photography with a social focus. At the same time, Nixon's work offers a remarkable demonstration of how the traditional tools of photography - a large-format camera, black and white film and contact sheets - can be used to venture into previously unexplored artistic territories. The book offers a chronological survey based on the artist's most important series, concluding with the well-known group of the Brown Sisters that he has created over the past 40 years.
Author Biography
Nicholas Nixon, born in 1947, is known for the ease and intimacy of his black and white large format photography. Nixon has photographed porch life in the rural south, schools in and around Boston, cityscapes, sick and dying people, the intimacy of couples, and the ongoing annual portrait of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters (which he began in 1975). Recording his subjects close and with meticulous detail facilitates the connection between the viewer and the subject. Nixon has been awarded three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and two Guggenheim Fellowships. In 2014, Nixon's annual portrait series, The Brown Sisters, reached its 40th anniversary and was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. In Summer 2013 Nixon's book Close Far was released by Steidl. The body of work explores the relationship of the self in physical and psychological proximity to the urban landscape. In 2010, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibited Nicholas Nixon: Family Album, through May 2011. In 2006, Nixon's ongoing portrait of the Brown sisters was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. In 2005 Nixon had a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Carlos Gollonet is Director of photography, Fundacion MAPFRE, Madrid Australian-born Sebastian Smee is the art critic for the Boston Globe. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in criticism.
