Thursday Entry: Atmosphere

"the color red attracts and repels. Red is always mesmerizing "
-Anne Varichon

Elms, A. (2005) "Then it's time to unsimplify you...".
Carl Michael Von Hausswolff: Red Empty(Chicago 2003), 1-5.


Anthony Elms' article clarifies Von Hausswolff's series Red Empty (Chicago 2003) and likens it to the film High Plains Drifter. The artist's palette of deep black shadows and saturated reds greatly adds tension to urban structures that would ordinarily go unnoticed. The buildings in this series are classified as in-betweens: "currently negative space, they are not quite ruins". Each structure, whether it be a church or a decaying house, has been highlighted for a particular reason in deep red. The eye is drawn in to these spaces, and the bold, primal color imposes many associations on to the buildings. Red's associations are myriad, and the viewer is given the opportunity to construct narratives with each image. Elms compares this series to the plot of Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, in that the titular character forces the population of a western town to literally paint all the buildings red, in order to expose corruption and sordid activities. In this way, the townspeople can all share in the guilt, and depravity that leaves no one clean.
Rarely have I seen a series in which each image shares the same atmosphere and tension. Von Hausswolff's sustained sense of drama and unease is something to marvel at. Elms was correct in pointing out the effectiveness of the color red; it is never subtle and can be interpreted in so many different ways. The artist's skillful creation and perpetuation of the sense of atmosphere is something I look to improve on with my own photographs.