THE DAILY PIC: A lovely unstill-life by Owen Kydd, as installed in the International Center of Photography’s “What Is A Photograph” exhibition, in New York. (Click on my image to see a video clip.) Kydd, who trained in Vancouver under the great photo-conceptualists Jeff Wall and Stan Douglas, shoots stationary footage of objects in store windows, often on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, where he lives. We only recognize his work as video because of very subtle motion in the light and air in his scenes; otherwise, it recalls the great color still-lifes of Jan Groover.
Kydd calls his artform “durational photography,” which is a fine name. Ever since video has been around, artists have tried to use it to make little vignettes of the passing scene that could compete with, or simply complete, the traditions of street photography – but the results have often seemed a bit trite and dull, too easily consumed. Turns out the boredom they caused came from being too short and having too much going on. By making his videos almost as slow and still as traditional photographs, Kydd makes them worthy of a longer look. (Image and clip ©Owen Kydd)
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We had the pleasure of showing Owen Kydd’s video installations in our Rogue Wave 2013 group exhibition, that featured 15 emerging L.A. artists.