Tuesday, December 11, 2012

End Time – 1990s

Self Portrait, 1992

Photographer David Seidner died of AIDS in 1999 at age 42. During this final decade his career continued to flourish in new ways – ambitious projects for books augmenting increasingly radical magazine work. 

Richard Serra, 1990

Gerhard Richter, 1991

Louise Bourgeois, 1992

Mme Gres, 1991

Reflection, 1994

YSL, 1993

Untitled (Contrapposto), 1993

Untitled (Contrapposto), 1993

Self Portrait

Self Portrait

Orchid, 1999

Orange Cluster on Green, 1999

Pink Orchid, 1999

The concluding pictures in the large online archive of  David Seidner's work (maintained by the International Center of Photography in New York) consist of bright, blurry orchids, visually distinct from all that had gone before them. Despite the vivid backgrounds it is impossible not to imagine these aggressive flowers as the same ones endured by most of us as part of the ultimate decor – that which surrounds a hospital bed.