Biff Henrich: The Structure of Things
© Biff Henrich
Curatorial Statement: Roberto Muffoletto
In his exhibition introduction Biff Henrich invites (the viewer the reader of the visual text) of the two portfolios included in the exhibition to consider and construct their own meanings and understandings. Taking the raw visual material, the image, as the starting point, meaning is understood as a subjective and creative process. From this position, there is no meaning until the reader says there is. From this perspective the authority lies with the reader and their experience.
This position creates a challenge for the reader. The experience only arises when the image is seen, not viewed, but seen. All images are codified from different paradigms. We experience the moon light images built upon the aesthetics of pictorialism. The color abstractions, rooted in painting and non-representationalism, explore the relationships between form and color. Seeing both approaches in the same exhibition, hanging on VASA’s virtual wall, brings to the forefront questions concerning the relationship between the two and the vision of the photographer.
The exhibition is entitled “The Structure of Things”. The title provides us with a basic framework to read the images. The abstract work is clear, it is about structure and relationships, form and color. The night images (Henrich photographed under moon light creates a quiet and still sense of the space) draws mainly from the natural landscape where we as readers impose structure and form, creating the objects we see in the image, thus providing the reader with a different challenge in thinking about what they see.
What may we learn about Biff Henrich through the two bodies of work in this exhibition? As he clearly states, these images are not meant to create within the reader the external world but to stimulate an internal reflective stance to the experience. His intention is not to provide ready-made meanings but invites the reader of his visual text to construct their own. In this way both bodies of work, as is all photography, are abstractions. Biff wants to engage his readers in the construction of their meanings, while realizing that the image is nothing until the reader reads it.
Note: (I need to mentiopn that the first viewer/reader of the visual text is the image-maker. Whether it is looking through a viewfinder or scanning the screen of a digital photo editor, the photographer is the first reader. Starting with the decision to make the digital recording (or exposure), framing and the moment, to the decision to display (display is a form of publication) the image, the photographer is reading the image and making editorial choices. After that the image(s) moves up the chain of editors: curators, publication editors and the public.)
© Roberto Muffoletto 2017
Images ©
Biff Henrich