Eastman is a self taught photographer who is able to capture the truth of his subjects using techniques and equipment rarely seen in our digital age. Inspired by photographers such as Eugene Atget and Walker Evans, he photographs a wide variety of subjects including architecture, neighborhoods, horses and landscapes. Like these great documentary photographers before him, Eastman holds the authenticity of the image as his highest goal. Using long exposure times instead of any artificial light, he waits with his Combi 4x5 camera and Schneider lens for as long as it takes for his Fuji color negative film to properly become exposed.
Eastman's images of the Aiken - Rhett house in Charleston, South Carolina, capture the history, grandeur and personality of that home with the honesty, style and grace we have come to fall in love with and associate with Eastman. His allowance of natural light and mastery of the long exposure photograph coupled with his stunning compositional skills capture the essence of his subjects in a way that is truly unequaled.
The gallery will also be presenting Eastman's latest book, Vanishing America: The End of Main Street Diners, Drive-Ins, Donut Shops and Other Everyday Monuments. Eastman went around the country six times in three and a half years exploring and searching for "situations that my (Eastman's) eye and my intellect can't readily explain". His photographs capture the beauty of these places, and the truth of where they are now in their cycle of life.
His photographs are in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum, San Francisco Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The High Museum, Kemper Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Nelson Atkins Museum, St. Louis Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art and the International Center for Photography, New York. Eastman's images have appeared on the cover of Time and his work has been published in Life and the New York Times. He is a recipient of a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. In 2004, Auguste Rodin images by Michael Eastman was published by Archipelago Books and his book Horses was published by Knopf and became a New York Times Bestseller.
Lisa Kurts Gallery is pleased to announce our latest exhibition of the sensational photographer Michael Eastman. His images of the Aiken - Rhett house in Charleston have recently been on view at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, as well as the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina and we are thrilled to have them here. Eastman is the signature honored artist for this year's The Art of Good Taste at Brooks Museum in Memphis.
