Todd Eberle talks to Art Matters

October 17th, 2011

Born in Cleveland, OH, in 1963, Todd Eberle is a professional photographer and artist based in New York City. He is currently photographer-at-large forVanity Fair. First celebrated for his photographs of Donald Judd’s works and architecture, Eberle is best known for his interpretive work comprising of iconic subject matter such as art, architecture, interiors, design, and portraits. Turning his lens on these subjects, Eberle presents the disparate images that make up international architecture, landscapes, and society. His vision is united by a minimalist aesthetic; a potent mix of control, symmetry and proportion.

We caught up with him to find out more about his photographs, the lessons he has learned throughout his career, and his brand new book, Todd Eberle: Empire of Space.

Todd, Working for Vanity Fair has given you the opportunity to shoot some great events, places and people. What are a few of your personal favourites?

Probably my “Modern’s Masters” portfolio in which I made portraits of the last of the great  Modernists: Philip Johnson (which was his last portrait), Oscar Niemeyer, Florence Knoll  Bassett, Phyllis Lambert, Dieter Rams, and Dan Kiley. The combined age of the subjects in that portfolio was over 1,000 years.

Some of my other favourites are my portfolio on portraits of painters, “Gotta Paint” in which then little-known artists such as Cecily Brown and John Currin were launched into their ‘superstar’ careers; John Pawson’s monastery in the Czech Republic, Disneyland’s 50th  anniversary I got to make with Dave Hickey who wrote the essay in my book, Donald Judd’s  work in Marfa, Texas. Most of the stories I’ve had in Vanity Fair were my ideas, so I’m personally attached to most of them. It’s why I make little distinction between my ‘personal’ work and my ‘commercial’ work. Those lines are as blurred as my subject matter.

Empire of Space is your first book. Given your expansive back catalogue, was it difficult to narrow down which images you wanted to include? What process did you go through to choose your images?

Walker Evans’ posthumous book, First and Last, was the inspiration for making pairings of images in my book. The most liberating part of it was it allowed me to mix my expansive range of subjects. Once I settled on making the juxtapositions of pairs of disparate images, it helped me to focus it exclusively on finding two images that had something in common. I think I came up with about 400 or so pairs that got edited down to 125 or so in the book.

What attracts you to want to photograph something? Your scope is very broad – from architecture to society. Is American life the common thread that holds it all together?

It doesn’t really matter to me if it’s a building or a person as long as I can tell some kind of a story that means something to history. My book has a lot of “American” subjects, and that’s something I’m certainly obsessed with, but at the end of the day, it’s all instinct. Drag queens, flowers, architecture, the art world, artists, architects: as long as a subject interests me, I can become obsessive about it. All those subjects have always held my interest, and will continue to. 

You were able to photograph the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. What are the challenges around shooting something on that scale? Do any other assignments stand out as especially challenging?

At CERN, it was not being able to get back far enough to effectively capture the scale, as the spaces are 300-ft underground and packed tight. As long as I get a decent amount of time-and sometimes don’t for whatever reason, I have to make the best of the circumstance. I have made something out of a five-minute window of opportunity, but it’s certainly not ideal.

After a shaky start-I got kicked out of art school in 1985, and never trained formally in photography, so I’ve gotten quite fast at making photographs in the nearly 30 years I’ve been making them. My biggest problem is editing after the shoot. I make a lot of material and approach many things as if they are book projects, so it’s sometimes difficult to get rid of images.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned as a photographer?

To have had the sense to discard the somewhat successful fashion photography career I once had. I knew the art and architecture I was starting to photograph actually made for material that means something over time, and a fashion photograph for the most part, are completely useless once they are published. And besides, Avedon, Penn and Newton had already made their marks, and they were indelible. How can one stand up to that pantheon of talent? In committing to subjects of my own interest and choosing, I’ve been able to build something of my own, I think.
Which other photographers do you admire?

Walker Evans and Irving Penn-both of whom had no boundaries when it came to their subject matter.

Can you give us a sneak peek into what you’ll be talking about at the AGO?

I will show some of the pairings from the book and talk about some of the memorable stories behind them. I might also talk about how some photographs are not ‘what they seem’, and that the viewer should not necessarily take some of mine at face value.

Join Todd Eberle at the AGO this Friday, October 21, for a brown bag lunch and talk. Tickets cost $29 ($23 for members) and include your lunch!

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