Ari Marcopoulos

Untitled 5/17/2007

Dutch

Ari Marcopoulos lives in Sonoma, CA. His photographs reflect a clarity of light and color combined with the immediacy of a self taught aesthetic. His earlier documentary work includes striking, in depth collections of the Beastie Boys as well as touring groups of young professional snowboarders, and more recently the life of his own family including the growing up of his two young sons. His camera shifts from small accidental details to broad landscapes, printed in different scales and juxtaposed, always conveying a sense of the moment.

At first the installation of the two large photographs on the top floor of Byers Hall at UCSF might seem inconsistent with the immediacy of Marcopoulos' past work. This installation is however very much of the moment, in the sense that the subject matter - the views through the windows of the same space to the north and south - is constantly changing, and will eventually be completely different as the city fills in on both sides. The photographs capture the most precise and inconsequential detail (both near and far, a rolled up pull chain sitting on the window mullion, a pile of dirt in the distance) and the most permanent features of the San Francisco skyline, with a kind of equal value, at a single moment that will forever recede in relation to the present.