Andrew Moore

American photographer Andrew Moore (born 1957) is widely acclaimed for his photographic series, usually taken over many years, which record the effect of time on the natural and built landscape. These series include work made in Cuba, Russia, Bosnia, Times Square, Detroit, The Great Plains, and most recently, the American South.

Moore’s photographs are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Library of Congress amongst many other institutions. He has received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2014, and has as well been award grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the J M Kaplan Fund.

Andrews work

in this specific section of photographs, Andrew Moore photographs the effect of time on the natural and built landscape, his images highlight the dilapidated and ominous parts of Detroit. he shows the impact of nature on man made buildings and objects, also showing how nature can destroy places over time. Time is one of the biggest destroyers of urban landscapes, for example things like rust, decay and mould. nature is trying its hardest to fight back for their space by slowly taking down man made objects, just like how earth was designed to be. His images relate to the topic of Anthropocene because he is showing the impact of human actions on nature, more and more places are becoming abandoned due to the fast destruction of buildings cause by nature and time. I chose this artist because I have a particular interest in old and abandoned places, I find tranquillity in places that have once been loved. In my opinion, a abandoned building tells a much bigger story than a building that is still running. It makes you question why it was left, who stayed here and many other things.

particular image that interests me is:

This photographs has a lot of character, it is almost quite sad as this place seemed to formally be someone’s home, but it has been destroyed over time. The piano is the centre focus of the image. A piano is known to be an expensive, well kept and precious item, but it has slowly been destroyed by nature and us. The lighting in the image is natural light coming through the windows of the room, this lighting exposes the fact that there are no man made lights in this place anymore after being abandoned. This photo was taken as a wide landscape shot, the photographers does this to show the sheer size of the destruction in this building, the image is calm yet chaotic in a way. There is a lot going on in this image, from broken windows, collapsed walls, and graffiti toa huge layer of dust. however, the piano being in the centre of the image, solitary, connotes to the idea that nature is working alone with no help anymore. due to the fact that us humans are not nurturing it anymore. the warm hue of the image indicates the natural sunlight coming into the room, but also symbolises the idea that this place used to be cared for and a place of comfort. The textures in this image are all very harsh and sharp instead of soft and dreamy, showing the harsh reality of time and nature breaking down our buildings.