Gabrielle, All the Artists in the World Photographic Project
2015
Archival Pigment Print
BUY
Price on Request
Variable Sizes
In 2015, I started ‘All The Artists In The World’, a photography portrait project inspired by conceptual artist, Douglas Huebler, and photographer, August Sander. Huebler casts aside classifications in his work; Sander uses them to examine and upend racial profiling and stereotypes. My project relates to and departs from both of their approaches.
Huebler, in his Variation #70 series, set out to photograph and document everyone in the world. He worked on this project intermittently throughout his life (starting in 1971 to 1997). Sander made portraits of a cross section of people from his native Westerwald , near Cologne, for his series, Man of the 20th Century, from 1911-1934. Huebler was concerned with finding ways of dealing with the masses of visual and written information in the world, and focused on process, devising narrative strategies for confronting and organizing the world; Sanders was concerned with showing the world as he found it, and finding truth. Their open-ended inquiry and existential concerns inform this project.
I’m interested in my community: artists – in what they look like, how they present themselves, who they are. I issued an open call for artists, through word of mouth, listings with arts organizations, postings on social media sites. Subjects posed for an individual then a group portrait, with the other artists present that day. There were three photography sessions over three months that took place at Le Petit Versailles, 346 East Houston St , NYC. I worked with a 4x5” wood field camera, in color, and black and white, with natural light.
I accepted all subjects who responded provided they were working artists. Basically, artists selected themselves, volunteering to participate. I think they were brave and open to do so – professional artists gave up control of their image, often didn’t know me, and didn’t know who they would wind up posing with. Built into the project was a social or performative element: the artists would meet each other while waiting to be photographed, and have a chance to talk and connect.
This project attracted a range of contemporary working artists, of different ages and sexes, who use diverse media, of diverse ethnicities, from different countries, and at different levels of career and recognition. At the conclusion of the photographing and printing, I organized a gathering to give everyone a print of their portrait and their group portrait.
Huebler, in his Variation #70 series, set out to photograph and document everyone in the world. He worked on this project intermittently throughout his life (starting in 1971 to 1997). Sander made portraits of a cross section of people from his native Westerwald , near Cologne, for his series, Man of the 20th Century, from 1911-1934. Huebler was concerned with finding ways of dealing with the masses of visual and written information in the world, and focused on process, devising narrative strategies for confronting and organizing the world; Sanders was concerned with showing the world as he found it, and finding truth. Their open-ended inquiry and existential concerns inform this project.
I’m interested in my community: artists – in what they look like, how they present themselves, who they are. I issued an open call for artists, through word of mouth, listings with arts organizations, postings on social media sites. Subjects posed for an individual then a group portrait, with the other artists present that day. There were three photography sessions over three months that took place at Le Petit Versailles, 346 East Houston St , NYC. I worked with a 4x5” wood field camera, in color, and black and white, with natural light.
I accepted all subjects who responded provided they were working artists. Basically, artists selected themselves, volunteering to participate. I think they were brave and open to do so – professional artists gave up control of their image, often didn’t know me, and didn’t know who they would wind up posing with. Built into the project was a social or performative element: the artists would meet each other while waiting to be photographed, and have a chance to talk and connect.
This project attracted a range of contemporary working artists, of different ages and sexes, who use diverse media, of diverse ethnicities, from different countries, and at different levels of career and recognition. At the conclusion of the photographing and printing, I organized a gathering to give everyone a print of their portrait and their group portrait.
All images copyright Sally Apfelbaum, 2023