Artist Statement
Photographs are referents, visual signs that point us towards conceptions of the world. They are literal and figurative projections of thoughts and ideas and decisions—a reification of a fluid relationship of an individual making choices from a particular vantage in time and space. They deepen and transform our understandings of what might be real and what is knowable while persistently reminding us of the fleeting qualities of time and the ineffable qualities of our own existence.
Ken Schles is a NYFA Fellow. A book maker for over 25 years, his four published monographs [Invisible City (Twelve Trees Press, 1988); The Geometry of Innocence (Hatje Cantz, 2001); A New History of Photography (White Press, 2008) and Oculus (Noorderlicht, 2011)] consistently have appeared on lists of important monographs.
A native New Yorker, he's currently a foreign correspondent for the FOAM museum blog (Amsterdam). His books are considered 'intellectual milestones in photography' (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Oculus (2011), was a “best” photobook of 2011. A New History of Photography: The World Outside and the Pictures In Our Heads (2008), was a finalist for the 2009 Rencontres d’Arles Photographie Contemporary Book Award. Vince Aletti in the New Yorker called his book Invisible City, 'hellishly brilliant.' Invisible City was also included in MoMA’s More Than One Photography exhibition as the sole representative of the printed photographic book, and listed in M+M Auer’s survey of important photographic books. IC has influenced a generation of photographers and is a favorite of the photographer Robert Frank. His work is included in private and public collections including MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museo D'Arte Contemporanea, LACMA and is held in more than 100 library and museum collections throughout the world.
A reprint of Invisible City, is forthcoming from Steidl (Germany), along with a new book of previously unpublished material.
How to use our image viewer
Click on any of the thumbnail images to launch the viewer. You can then navigate forward and backward within the portfolio by clicking the left or right side of the enlarged image. Click the add to collection checkbox to automatically add an image to your collection. Image tags or search engine keywords appear below the collections' checkbox and each word or phrase is a link to potentially more image matches.
google+
linkedin