James Casebere

Since the 1980s, James Casebere’s photographs have transported viewers into ambiguous, evocative, and surreal environments. Casebere’s process involves constructing tabletop models out of modest materi¬als, such as Styrofoam, plaster, and cardboard. He then dramatically lights these constructions and care¬fully positions his camera to manipulate the com¬position and the mood of the resulting photograph. Devoid of human figures, the constructions invite viewers to project into and inhabit the space.

For Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY) #1 and Landscape with Houses (Dutchess County, NY) #2, Casebere constructed his grandest, most detailed model to date—an American subdivision based on one in Dutchess County, New York. The fabricated community is a hybrid development of the sort hit hard by the foreclosure epidemic of the past few years.