Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Short texts
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Tate American Fund
Evidence
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/larry-sultan-10068" aria-label="More by Larry Sultan" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Larry Sultan</a>, <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mike-mandel-10069" aria-label="More by Mike Mandel" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Mike Mandel</a>
Presented by the American Fund for the Tate Gallery 2016
ambiguity
appropriation
body
clothing and personal items
collaboration
documentary
education, science and learning
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
leg
machinery
objects
overalls
people
photographic
science
society
tools and machinery
universal concepts
<p>This photograph belongs to a portfolio comprising thirty-three gelatin silver prints from the project <span>Evidence </span>1977 by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel. In the spring of 1977 Sultan and Mandel self-published a photobook that was assembled from found photographs the artists had collected from the archives of seventy-seven aerospace weapons and energy corporations and research bodies located mostly on the California coast. The images included in <span>Evidence</span> were originally made as documents and objective records of activities and situations: the scenes of crimes, aeronautical engineering tests, industrial experiments, among other subjects. Sifting through two million images, Sultan and Mandel assembled a careful sequence of fifty-nine photographs. Tate’s portfolio, number one in an edition of six, comprises the artists’ further selection of thirty-three images from the original series, printed in 2001 (Tate P14478–P14510). Tate also holds exhibition copies of three additional photographs from the project printed in 2006 (Tate P20292– P20294) and a first edition copy of the photobook.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
20 February 2017 – 14 January 2018
2018-01-14
20 February 2017 – 14 January 2018
2018-01-14
2017-02-20
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2017-02-20
Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel
Collection based display
Untitled
support: 203 × 253 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999976" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">American Fund for the Tate Gallery</a> 2016
<div><p><span>This photograph belongs to a portfolio comprising thirty-three gelatin silver prints from the project </span><i>Evidence </i><span>1977 by Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel. In the spring of 1977 Sultan and Mandel self-published a photobook that was assembled from found photographs the artists had collected from the archives of seventy-seven aerospace weapons and energy corporations and research bodies located mostly on the California coast. The images included in </span><i>Evidence</i><span> were originally made as documents and objective records of activities and situations: the scenes of crimes, aeronautical engineering tests, industrial experiments, among other subjects. Sifting through two million images, Sultan and Mandel assembled a careful sequence of fifty-nine photographs. Tate’s portfolio, number one in an edition of six, comprises the artists’ further selection of thirty-three images from the original series, printed in 2001 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sultan-mandel-untitled-p14478" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14478</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sultan-mandel-untitled-p14510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14510</span></a>). Tate also holds exhibition copies of three additional photographs from the project printed in 2006 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sultan-mandel-no-title-p20292" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P20292</span></a>– <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sultan-mandel-no-title-p20294" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P20294</span></a>) and a first edition copy of the photobook.</span></p><p><span>As Sultan and Mandel stated in a jointly signed press release for an exhibition of the project at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1977, </span><i>Evidence </i><span>is ‘a poetic exploration upon the restructuring of imagery’. Photographs that once served a functional purpose are stripped of their explanatory captions and institutional contexts, carefully sequenced and presented as expressive artefacts. In this new setting, the images testify to cryptic and dubious rituals and a culture of dehumanising, ambiguous institutional values. Although the documentary origins of the photographs are explicit, they are displayed without captions identifying specific images or their sources. Full of mysterious events and unfathomable activities, the photographs suggest an ambiguous sequential narrative that invites the audience to create its own interpretation. The images challenge the viewer to reassess the process of assigned meaning and authorship in the creation and consideration of the art photograph. The series is positioned within historic and contemporary debates about the aesthetics of the documentary photograph and has remained influential on the use of found photography in art practice today.</span></p><p><span>Sultan and Mandel took two and a half years to complete the project, and during this time they looked at over two million photographs. By the end of their research the pair had collected more than five hundred images that were eventually sequenced down to the fifty-nine included in the photobook. The participating corporations included General Atomic, Bechtel, NASA, the United States Navy, Stanford Research Institute, TRW and Lockheed, among many others. In addition, the two artists also visited a number of public photographic archives, such as Pacific Telephone, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles, as well as the police and fire departments in the Bay Area. The first institution they visited was NASA’s Ames Research Laboratory. During the later stages of the project the duo left California and briefly visited the photographic archives of government buildings in Washington, D.C.</span></p><p><span>Sultan and Mandel began collaborating while they were graduate students at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1973. For the past thirty years they have worked together on numerous projects including artists’ books, exhibitions and public art. Arguably their most famous project, </span><i>Evidence</i><span> is regarded as a groundbreaking conceptual photographic series.</span></p><p><span>Rachel Taylor 2006</span><br/><span>Updated 2024</span></p></div>
Summary
2024-06-28T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
ambiguity appropriation body clothing and personal items collaboration documentary education, science and learning emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities leg machinery objects overalls people photographic science society tools and machinery universal concepts