From The Smithsonian American Art Museum,”The installation of John Gossage: The Pond celebrates the recent gift to the museum of this remarkable photographic series and the re-issue of one of the most influential photography books of the past three decades. John Gossage photographed a small, unnamed pond between Washington, D.C., and Queenstown, Maryland, between 1981 and 1985. The title was intended to recall Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, but Gossage advocated a more all-embracing view of the landscape, exploring the less idealized spaces that border America’s cities and suburbs. Although many of the images in The Pond appear unruly or uncared for, Gossage found moments of grace and elegance in even the most mundane of places.”
From Aperture Foundation, “John Gossage’s The Pond was considered groundbreaking when first published in 1985, and remains one of the most important photobooks of the medium. Consisting of photographs taken around and away from a pond situated in an unkempt wooded area at the edge of a city, the volume presents a considered foil to Henry Thoreau’s stay at Walden. The photo graphs in The Pond do not aspire to the “beauty” of classical landscapes in the tradition of Ansel Adams. Instead, they reveal a subtle vision of reality on the border between humankind and nature. Gossage depicts nature in full splendor, yet at odds with both itself and humankind, but his tone is ambiguous and evoca tive rather than didactic. Robert Adams described the work as “believable because it includes evidence of man’s darkness of spirit, memorable because of the intense fondness [Gossage] shows for the remains of the natural world.”
Related Links:
Photography Book: The Pond by John Gossage – Aperture Foundation
Smithsonian Magazine: “Around the Mall” blog, Interview with John Gossage
The Washington Post: John Gossage’s ‘The Pond’ at Smithsonian American Art Museum By Sarah Boxer
Aperture Foundation: Gerry Badger and John Gossage in Conversation
Washington City Paper: John Gossage: The Pond at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Reviewed By Louis Jacobson
