Publicly Private: Enrico Natali and Doug Rickard January 14, 2012

This exhibition explores the documentary intent and style of two photographers working 50 years apart. Enrico Natali made surreptitious photographs on the New York subways in the 1960s. By placing a small Yashica camera at his side, he could look down into the rangefinder and choose the moment to snap the shutter, obviating the need to point a camera directly at a subject. Respectful and intimate, his approach enabled him to overcome his extreme shyness. In contrast, Doug Rickard’s 21st-century approach is to roam the forgotten streets of select cities without ever leaving his house. Using Google’s Street View, Rickard screens thousands of technological artifacts that are publicly available on the internet, selects, and re-photographs images on his computer monitor. He sees them as “A New American Picture” that is both voyeuristic and heartbreaking.