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San Diego Topographics 2 1986-1987
Clarke, Stephen
Clarke, Stephen
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2019-12-19
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Abstract
When Stephen Clarke arrived on America’s West Coast in the mid-1980s having just completed his art degree, he had expected to feel a familiarity with its landscape. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s he had absorbed a version of California by watching popular American detective shows. Onto this childhood picture he later mapped the work of the photo-artists based there who informed his art practice —Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz. For a year he took photographs of San Diego, struggling to navigate through an arid and sprawling landscape which he discovered was alien territory. [a version of this abstract was written by Julia Garcia Hernandez and first published in the RPS Contemporary Photography, No. 63, Spring 2016]
San Diego Topographics 2 1986 - 1987 was published by Café Royal Books in an edition of 250. It was edited by Craig Atkinson, founder of Café Royal Books. San Diego Topographics 2 1986 - 1987 is one of Clarke’s four CRB photobooks dedicated to the subject of San Diego, California, USA. The published photographs form part of a larger project—including books, articles, and exhibitions—titled Alien Resident based on Clarke’s legal status while in the USA as a resident alien.
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Clarke, S. (2019). San Diego Topographics 2 1986-1987. Café Royal Books
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Café Royal Books
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Composed of 17 black&white photographs taken in the 1980s and 1990s. It is included in a box set of 100 Café Royal Books photobooks titled Archive Five and is in the collection of major institutions. San Diego Topographics 2 1986 - 1987 was exhibited at the Martin Parr Foundation in the exhibition Café Royal Books: Documentary, Zines and Subversion (14 April-12 June 2022); and at Stills: Centre for Photography, Edinburgh as part of the exhibition titled Café Royal Books (10 November 2023 – 10 February 2024). Images from this book were included in the exhibition Alien Resident: San Diego Photographs 1986 – 1987 shown at the Contemporary Art Space Chester (CASC) Gallery, The Forum, Chester (6 November – 2 December, 2020).