About a month ago I saw some work from James Welling's series Torsos at the Whitney Biennial. Consisting of unique photograms, the images from this series are meditative explorations of the formal, perhaps even classical, qualities of photographic representation-- texture, light, contour and tonal range. Intended "to follow bodily contours", Welling's photograms strike a successful balance between the figurative and the abstract. Above all, the images from Torsos are wonderfully tactile, often seeming to transcend the limitations of a two dimensional medium. Unfortunately, viewing them online doesn't do them the justice they deserve.
Torso 3, 2008
Image © James Welling
