John Stezaker: Crossing Over
British Conceptual artist John Stezaker is renowned for his innovative approach to found photographic imagery. This artist book focuses on his 'Crossing Over' series (2005–13), which reframes image fragments from postcards to stimulate new readings.
Building upon Stezaker’s corresponding 'The 3rd Person Archive' series, the image fragments in this volume span the history of postcard production. Moving from the Victorian era to the postwar period and black and white to colour imagery, Stezaker focuses on the female figure as well as notions of return and crossing back. Exploring time and memory, Crossing Over frames seemingly minor details, such as figures passing on a street corner or conversing on a park bench, as well as the marks left by the physical movement of the images themselves.
Exploring time and memory, Stezaker focuses on the female figure as well as notions of return and crossing back – framing seemingly minor details such as figures passing on a street corner or conversing on a park bench, as well as the marks left by the physical movement of the images themselves.
Reproduced at actual size, the 65 image fragments in this artist project are collected here for the first time.
John Stezaker (b.1949, Worcester) is one of the leading artists in contemporary photographic collage and appropriation. Employing vintage photographs, old Hollywood film stills, travel postcards and other printed matter, Stezaker creates small-format collages that bear qualities of Surrealism, Dada and found art. Stezaker studied at the Slade School of Art and has taught at the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins School of Art, London. In 2012 he was awarded the Deutsche Börse photography prize following a retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. His work has been exhibited internationally since the 1990s and is held in collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Arts Council England; and Tate.