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Mitch Epstein1997
- Attribution
- Mitch Epstein American, born 1952
- Medium
- Chromogenic print
- Physical dimensions
- 58.7 × 71.3 cm (23 1/8 × 28 1/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Anstiss and Ronald Krueck in honor of Helen Harvey Mills
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Source rights statement: Public-domain image eligibility not established by this export
View the museum record ↗From the museum
Over the past four decades, Mitch Epstein has established himself as a trenchant observer of the everyday. Working in discrete projects in both black and white and color—he was first introduced to color when his photography teacher, Garry Winogrand, showed the class prints by William Eggleston—he connects significant details with larger themes in modern life. This photograph is from the series The City , which explores the blurred lines between public and private life in New York. “I’m interested in myth-making from the ordinary and banal; to use photography through wit and irony to change the nature of things seen,” he has said. Here the layered contrasts—a dirty window with a fading sign on the glass that declares “Clean & Neat,” and a rundown theater that is named “Empire” in a tribute to better days—filter our perception of a changing city.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0