David Ricci
David Ricci
EDGE
54 color plates
Swiss-bound Hardcover
8" x 12.2"
Fall Line Press
2022
About the Book:
Early in my career I photographed architectural subjects and worked in a sparse, formalist vein, capturing a few basic geometric forms, and trying to perfect what I understood to be “good” composition – move in close, crop tightly, eliminate superfluous objects from the field of view.
This was followed by a long-term project photographing vacant recreational sites throughout America - amusement parks, seaside boardwalks, outdoor sports facilities and the like. These venues call out for crowds, so when nearly deserted they took on an eerie, surreal aura that I found captivating. But having few figures in the landscape also impacted the way I composed the images. Graphic elements that would have been obscured by throngs of people emerged from the scenes; I became acutely aware of patterns on the ground; the sky took on a greater role. As the project evolved, I attempted to challenge the commonly accepted “rules” of good photography composition. The images still had a geometric underpinning, but I included a greater number of visual elements in my viewfinder, and made extensive use of visual motifs – repeating colors, lines, objects, and forms - to make intricate photographs that resonate with rhythm, gesture, and pattern. Over time I progressively orchestrated more compositional components, nearly overloading the frame, and eventually reaching a point where the images became extraordinarily complex, bordering on chaos, and holding together a bit tenuously.
Since that time, I have produced several more bodies of work utilizing those compositional strategies and expanding on the theme of “human presence without humans present” that I explored in the amusement park series. These include : a series on the loss of homes and jobs - photographs of building demolitions, dismantled factories and natural disasters; images of scrap metal heaps and recycling centers that comment on our consumerist society; a project photographing commercial fishing vessels and riggings that, despite the absence of the crew, evokes their presence and life on the working waterfront. Selections from these and other projects are artfully woven together in EDGE.
The complexity of the compositions is not meant to be an end in itself, but rather a vehicle to reveal a surprising elegance that emerges from haphazard scenes, chance occurrences, and commonplace subject matter. I believe there is an underlying rhythmic pulse in the universe which, at certain places and times, is manifested in that enchanted space where order and disorder reach a taut balance. One hears the music buried beneath the noise at those magical moments discovered at the edge of chaos.
Book review by RJ Meyer |
“Edge”, by David Ricci is an exploration of the order and curiosity to be found in the world around us. David’s color images lie on a spectrum that contains near fantastical visual perfection on one end, and openly chaotic disorder on the other. “Edge” contains images across over 30 years of making, and from places as east as Massachusetts and west as Arizona.
David is an experienced and self taught American Photographer whose work has been acquired by several museums including Los Angeles County Museum of art, Fogg Museum, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
The book is primarily landscape compositions void of people, with their inclusion being rare and sparse within the book. The sequencing is progressive, beginning with imagery which contains patterns, order, and an understanding and respect to traditional landscape. As the pages turn, the images increase in pace, complexity, and rhythm, culminating in the intensely dynamic layers of his later frames.
David is able to create a visual flow and rhythm throughout the book that leads the viewer through a journey of decreasing human order, embracing the natural chaos that can be found within the passing of time. There is a tangible sense of play with the curiosity displayed with David’s images, which are filled edge to edge, with energy, pattern, intention and shape. As a whole the piece feels like a cohesive body of work. The book is one where its meaning and theme come at the viewer stronger and stronger with each pass. The elegance of each image is magnified by the next, and by the end there is a poetic feeling of the flow of both life and time.
