Mike Mandel

Alternate Titles

• Boardwalk minus forty

Description

Zone Eleven is a reference to Ansel Adams' Zone System, a method to control exposure of the negative in order to obtain a full range of tonality in the photographic print from the deepest black of Zone 0 to the brightest highlight in Zone 10. Zone Eleven is a metaphor coined by artist Mike Mandel in his challenge to create a book of Adams' photographs outside of the bounds of his personal work. Many of these photographs were found in the archives of his commercial and editorial assignments, and from his experimentation with the new Polaroid material of the times. For this book, Mandel has unearthed images that are unexpected for Adams, and created a new context of facing page relationships, and sequence. Zone Eleven is the product of Mike Mandel's research of over 50,000 Adams images located within four different archives to present a body of Adams' work that was unknown until now. Mike Mandel is well known for his collaboration with Larry Sultan in the 1970s - 1990s. They published Evidence in 1977, a collection of 59 photographs chosen from more than two million images that the artists viewed at the archives of government agencies and tech-oriented corporations. Conceptually, Zone Eleven is a companion book to Evidence. As Evidence reframes the institutional documentary photograph with new context and meaning, Zone Eleven responds to the audience expectation of "the iconic Ansel Adams nature photograph." But Mandel selects images that do not fit that expectation. Zone Eleven is a book of Ansel Adams images that surprisingly speak to issues of the social relations, the built environment, and alienation.

Description

Created during the artist's time as a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, Boardwalk Minus Forty was one of Mandel's first serious forays into what he jokingly refers to as "real photographs." Known later for his conceptual bodies of work, most notably Evidence, created with fellow artist Larry Sultan in the late 1970's and now regarded by many as one of photography's most influential photo books, Boardwalk is a rare look back at the foundation the artist was building all along -- Provided by the publisher.

Subjects

Series Statement

• TBW Books Subscription series no. 5 -- I

Other Editions

• Mike Mandel: boardwalk minus fortyTBW Books2017-01-01
• Mike MandelDamiani2021-01-01