Digital BW, The Print

I quite enjoyed the contrast between the two shows of Friedlander and  
Basilico.  Basilico's work is definitely of a different sort, far less  
intimate, more about first impressions.  After all, he was only there  
a month.  I was in Italy in December for two weeks and I'm sure I shot  
far more stereotypical classical-Tuscan-Italian images than if I lived  
in the country and knew it better.

I skimmed through Basilico's book, and it seems he doesn't claim to be  
anything but a modernist.  He has training as an architect, I believe,  
and that definitely informs his work.  Not that the older structures  
in the area aren't wonderful examples of architecture, but I can  
understand his wanting to show the expanse and impact of the  
contemporary built environment -- which definitely is dominated by the  
freeways, arterial streets, and business parks.

On Mar 28, 2008, at 10:39 AM, djon43 wrote:
> Basilico intends to degrade viewers by attributing significance to
> inferior commercial architecture. He ignores the beautiful
> architecture, the homes, schools, public and commercial buildings and
> parks that have been been built so consistently ever since Silicon
> Valley was populated by immigrants (eg. the Gold Rush).

Just to be fair, there was at least one shot of an older, non- 
corporate building -- perhaps a city hall in one of the Valley towns?   
It did look mighty out of place next to the other images.

> Not only did
> he ignore Stanford University and Sand Hill Road, he missed Hanger
> One, which has dominated much of the landscape for sixty years:

My memory of the show (saw it a couple of weeks ago) was that there  
was an edge of the hangar -- or perhaps it was another hangar  
altogether.

--John