David Deutsch


The paintings in this photograph are abstracted aerial cities, which I have shown together with large grids of the nighttime photos. I continue to work with photographs and landscape paintings.

Initially, the aerial photographs served as source material for my paintings in the mid '80s. As I moved away from distant views—towards telephoto views—I adopted a "surveillance" approach to my work. I decided to show my aerial "surveillance" photographs as autonomous works, and, in the late '90s, I was struck with the idea of shooting at night making use of police helicopter spotlights, also known as "Nightsuns."

With both the photographs and the paintings, the whole effect is one of continuous searching, but never really finding. Something is revealed in the night, and that is what is left as night stops daytime activity as opposed to what we witness when everything is bright and easily seen.