James Casebere, Monticello #3, 2001, Digital chromogenic print, 48 x 60″. Courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery, N.Y.
James Casebere’s photographs evoke our deepest fears and longings. He builds tabletop models that mimic the appearance of archetypal institutions (home, school, library, prison), or archetypal architectural tropes (tunnel, corridor, archway). In Casebere’s photographs, these miniatures often appear to be actual structures. Their serial narratives bear a particularly European, existential angst in spite of the artist’s affinity for American subjects such as the Western frontier and Jefferson’s Monticello. And while his influences seem far flung, from French New Wave cinema to conceptual American art and the early 20th-century Bauhaus and Constructivists, his work feels organically unified. Perhaps this is because his images captivate our collective imagination, the one ruled by instinct.

Above excerpt from James Casebere by Roberto Juarez – The Bomb Magazine – the interview is a nice intro to the work…

Before the camera – a lot more than taking a picture…