Sage Sohier: Perfectible Worlds
Saturday, July 26, 2008
British redcoat re-enactor, Battle of Concord and Lexington, Lexington, MA, 2002
© Sage Sohier
I’ve always been a fan of Sage Sohier’s work, particularly her series entitled Perfectible Worlds. Currently up through August 15th at Foley Gallery in New York, the photographs are described as so:
Sage Sohier’s latest series of “contextual portraits” began with a photograph she took of her friend and his model railroad; a twenty year work-in-progress that traversed and had long overrun his entire basement. Sohier was taken by the man’s uncommon devoutness to each detail of the minuscule landscape and set herself in search of his kindred extraordinaires; people with private passions and marvelous obsessions.
The photographs in Sohier’s “Perfectible Worlds” portray such singular people; amid their voluminous collections, absorbed wholly into odd hobbies, heavily draped in adornments, or mounting their multitude of achievements. Whether it be by the constructions of small extravagant worlds, or reconstructions of the self, Sohier’s subjects are all carving express utopias over which they can exert near-total control.
Here are a few more photographs from the series:
Man in his basement with model railroad, Newton, MA, 2001
© Sage Sohier
Man applying tanning lotion before a bodybuilding competition, Worcester, MA, 2003
© Sage Sohier
Father and daufghter in camouflage, Gilmanton, NH, 2004
© Sage Sohier
Woman with dollhouse interiors, Charlemont, MA, 2002
© Sage Sohier
Diorama, Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA, 2004
© Sage Sohier
See more images on Sage’s website and pick up a copy of her here.
