Exhibition dates: 10th September – 28th October 2016
An American iconography
George Tice is a master photographer and an exceptional artist. Using a large format 8 x 10 camera this craftsman has created a “deeply-penetrating” photographic record of the American urban landscape, mainly based around the city of New Jersey where he has lived for most of his life.
Tice’s ongoing epic visual poem is at its strongest in his early period, from 1973-74. While his later 1990s work is qualified by simplified imagery and semiotic statements (for example Dorn’s Photoshop, Red Bank, NJ, 1999 and Lakewood Manor Motel, Lakewood, NJ, 1998, below) it is this early work that produces “attentive and quotidian descriptions of the everyday structures and places that define the American cultural landscape.” There seems to be a greater personal investment in these earlier images. Tice’s recognition of subject matter that mere mortals pass by is translated into beautiful, serene, tonal and dare I say, sensual images, that belie the complexity of their previsualisation. You only have to look at two images, Houses and Water Towers, Moorestown, NJ, 1973 and Hudson’s Fish Market, Atlantic City, NJ, 1973 (below) to understand that these photographs are visually complex, slightly surreal, affectionate images of places he personally knows so well. They possess a totally different feeling from the conceptual photography of the German school of Bernd and Hilla Becher. As Sanford Schwartz in The New York Times, on December 3, 1972 noted: “Tice’s pictures… show a remarkable blend of intimacy, affection and clear-sightedness.”
The almost tragic, objective renditions of a post-industrial landscape evidence a poetic intensity that has deep roots in the history of photography. Vivien Raynor, writing in The New York Times, said, “Finding precedents for Mr. Tice’s photography is easier than defining the personal qualities that make it so special. As others have remarked, his tranquil towns, usually deserted, could sometimes be those of Walker Evans updated; his industrial views are not unrelated to Charles Sheeler’s, and, for good measure, the stillness and silence of his compositions link him to Atget, the first great urban reporter.” Tice builds upon the lineage of other great artists but then, as any good artist should, he forges his own path, not reliant on the signature of others. As he himself observes, “… if you learn to see what photography is through one person’s eyes you become fixed in that one way of seeing.”
When I first started taking photographs in 1990, my heroes were Atget, Strand, Evans and Minor White. Looking at art, and looking at photographers, trained my eye. But as an artist, looking at the world is the most valuable education that you can have, for eventually you have to forge your own style, not copy someone else … and the signature that you create becomes your own. You know it’s a Mapplethorpe, just as you know it’s an Evans, or a Tice. Each piece of handwriting is unique. Nobody can teach that and it only comes with time and experience. As Paul Strand said, it takes 10 years to become an artist, 10 years to learn your craft, 10 years to drop ego away and find your own style. This is what the work of George Tice speaks to. He approaches the world with a clear mind, focused on a objective narrative that flips! exposing us (like his film), to a subjective, visceral charm all of his own making.
Marcus
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Many thankx to the Joseph Bellows Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
“As I progressed further with my project, it became obvious that it was really unimportant where I chose to photograph. The particular place simply provided an excuse to produce work… you can only see what you are ready to see – what mirrors your mind at that particular time.”
“Documenting the place is principally what I do. The bulk of my photographs are of New Jersey. It may have been a subject series, like ice or aquatic plants, that could have been anywhere, but it was done in New Jersey. Most of my pictures are about place. I would say the Urban Landscape work is what is most distinctive about me.”
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George Tice
George Tice
Jimmy’s Bar and Grill and Conmar Zipper Company, Newark, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Houses and Water Towers, Moorestown, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Hudson’s Fish Market, Atlantic City, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Dorn’s Photoshop, Red Bank, NJ, 1999
1999
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Lexington Avenue, Passaic, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Palace Funhouse, Asbury Park, 1995
1995
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Railroad Bridge, High Bridge, NJ, 1974
1974
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Route #440 Overpass, Perth Amboy, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
“Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of photographs by one of the medium’s master photographers, George Tice. George Tice: Urban Landscapes will open with a book signing and reception with the artist on Saturday September, 10th from 6-8pm. The exhibition will continue through October 28th, 2016.
The exhibition will present a remarkable selection of forty exceptionally rare vintage 8 x 10 inch gelatin silver contact prints from the early period (1973-74), of Tice’s ongoing epic visual poem of his native state of New Jersey. These unique vintage prints will be punctuated with larger photographs of some of artist’s most revered and significant images, as well as selections of more recent work from his extended New Jersey portrait.
Renowned for their attentive and quotidian descriptions of the everyday structures and places that define the American cultural landscape, Tice’s exquisitely printed photographs catalog a rich and layered journey that is both personal and universal. In the photographs that comprise Urban Landscapes, Tice defines a sense of America within a tradition rooted in the work of other American masters, namely Edward Hopper and Walker Evans. Tice’s photographs of New Jersey in the early to mid 1970’s describe a particular time and place; however, as the artist states, “It takes the passage of time before an image of a commonplace subject can be assessed. The great difficulty of what I attempt is seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal.” Now, with decades past, Tice’s observations have become even more poignant depictions, everlasting a specific era and landscape, as the artist intended.
As well as being one of the 20th Century’s most prominent photographers, Tice is revered as a master printer, having printed limited-edition portfolios of some of his favorite photographers, among them Edward Steichen, Edward Weston and Frederick H. Evans, as well as other important photographers including Francis Bruguiere, Ralph Steiner and Lewis Hine.”
Press release from the Joseph Bellows Gallery
George Tice
Tenement Rooftops, Hoboken, NJ, 1974
1974
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Steve’s Diner, Route 130, North Brunswick, 1974
1974
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Ideal Diner, Perth Amboy, NJ, 1980
1980
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
White Castle, Route #1, Rahway, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Strand Theater, Keyport, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Industrial Landscape, Kearny, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice in conversation with Paul Caponigro
JPC You had said, “After a time you don’t want to have any photographic influences. It’s okay to be influenced by writers, poets, people in other fields but not okay by other photographers.”
GT You don’t want to be like anyone else. Like all those people who were influenced by Ansel Adams. I don’t think any of them will do better than he did.
JPC Not until they find their own voice. It’s impossible to successfully imitate someone else’s voice.
GT Right. And the natural landscape of the west, that’s not going to be better in the future, as the population increases and much of the wilderness gets erased. Timothy O’Sullivan probably had a better chance at it than Ansel Adams did. But you don’t want anyone to be too great an influence, like an apprenticeship. If I was to begin photography, study it, I wouldn’t want one teacher. I think one teacher is too great an influence. I’d rather have an education based on workshops. You draw some knowledge through every one of them. But if you learn to see what photography is through one person’s eyes you become fixed in that one way of seeing.
George Tice Conversations on the John Paul Caponigro “Illuminating Creativity” web page 07/01/1997 [Online] Cited 09/10/2016
George Tice
Jahos Brothers Clothing Store, Trenton, NJ, 1973
1973
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Minnie’s Go-Go, Route 130, Merchantville, 1975
1975
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Lakewood Manor Motel, Lakewood, NJ, 1998
1998
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Esso Station and Tenement House, Hoboken, NJ, 1972
1972
Silver gelatin print
George Tice
Telephone Booth, 3 am, Railway, NJ, 1974
1974
Silver gelatin print
Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girrard Avenue
La Jolla, California
Phone: 858 456 5620
Opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 5pm, and Saturday by appointment
Joseph Bellows Gallery website
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Filed under: American, american photographers, beauty, black and white photography, documentary photography, exhibition, existence, gallery website, landscape, light, memory, photographic series, photography, psychological, reality, space, time, works on paper Tagged: 1970s American photography, american artist, American black and white photography, American documentary photography, american photographer, American photography, American realist photography, American urban photography, Americana, Charles Sheeler, Dorn's Photoshop, Edward Hopper, Esso Station and Tenement House, Eugene Atget, gelatin silver contact prints, George Tice, George Tice Dorn's Photoshop, George Tice Esso Station and Tenement House, George Tice Houses and Water Towers, George Tice Hudson's Fish Market, George Tice Ideal Diner, George Tice Industrial Landscape, George Tice Jahos Brothers Clothing Store, George Tice Jimmy's Bar and Grill, George Tice Jimmy's Bar and Grill and Conmar Zipper Company, George Tice Lakewood Manor Motel, George Tice Lexington Avenue, George Tice Minnie's Go-Go, George Tice Palace Funhouse, George Tice Railroad Bridge, George Tice Route #440 Overpass, George Tice Steve's Diner, George Tice Strand Theater, George Tice Telephone Booth, George Tice Tenement Rooftops, George Tice White Castle, George Tice: Urban Landscapes, Houses and Water Towers, Jahos Brothers Clothing Store, Jimmy's Bar and Grill and Conmar Zipper Company, Joseph Bellows Gallery, Lakewood Manor Motel, large format camera, large format photography, Minnie's Go-Go, New Jersey, Palace Funhouse, Paul Caponigro, Route #440 Overpass, Telephone Booth 3 am, udson's Fish Market, Urban Landscapes, visual poem, Walker Evans, Walker Evans and George Tice