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Hi-Fi TV

Hi-Fi TV

Artist: Michael Spano (American, born 1949)
Date: 1987 (negative) ; 1990 (print)
Dimensions:
Overall: 28 1/2 x 37 1/4 in. (72.4 x 94.6 cm);
Image: 26 5/8 x 35 1/2 in. (67.5 x 90.2 cm)
Medium: Solarized gelatin-silver print
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gift of The Toledo Friends of Photography and Mark and Rubena Schaffer
Object number: 1990.57
Label Text:Exposing the photographic paper to light during the development process (solarization) created the dark outlines seen around the buildings and people that populate this image. The exaggerated outlines, negative effects, and confused perspective that resulted from the difficult-to-predict process created here an unsettled and mysterious work of art.

Michael Spano was born in the Bronx and earned his BA at Queens College and his MFA degree in photography at Yale University School of Art. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984. He has since experimented with photographic formats, tools, and techniques, often applying them to his photographs of New York street scenes. In this photograph, using the buildings as a backdrop, Spano capitalizes on the energy of the people—transforming an image of everyday activities into a frenetic, vibratory vision through the technique of solarization.


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