A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#41.779976, Chicago, IL (2007), 2011
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

AustraliaArt & Culture

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

Low-res response to high-tech vision of urban decay...

Photographer Doug Rickard is a champion of the run down and beat up, scouring America for the best of the worst – those places that have fallen on hard times but which still retain a visual interest long after the financial interest has been withdrawn.

Google Street View was Rickard’s method of choosing locations – the internet application was last seen providing artistic inspiration on the pages of We Heart in Paulo Cirio’s Street Ghosts – and over the course of many painstaking hours Rickard found the most interesting of America’s grot-spots, travelling to the locations virtually and re-photographing from his screen.

Those caught in the exposure of Rickard’s lens are blurred, and the low-res nature of the images create what he hopes is a painting-like quality, re-inforcing the isolation of modern Americans. You can see his collection, A New American Picture, at the Yossi Millo Gallery in New York until 24th November.

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#34.546147, Helena-West Helena, AR (2008), 2010 Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#33.665001, Atlanta, GA (2009), 2010
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#40.805716, Bronx, NY (2009), 2011
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#104.100061, Roswell, NM, (2008), 2011
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#82.948842, Detroit, MI (2009), 2010
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#32.700542, Dallas, TX (2009), 2010
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#83.016417, Detroit, MI (2009), 2010
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A New American Picture, Doug Rickard

#39.177833, Baltimore, MD (2008), 2011
Archival Pigment Print
© Doug Rickard, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York