In 1936, publisher Henry Luce decided that pictures could tell a story just as well, if not better than text. He bought LIFE magazine from its previous owners and made it the first magazine that was photo-centric, using only captions of text to bring its readers the latest weekly news. Canadian Artist Geoffrey Farmer has taken thousands of these beautiful images from issues of LIFE magazine in 1935 through 1985 and turned them into a fascinating 3D collage that spans over 50 feet. Farmer’s “Leaves of Grass” Exhibition will be on display in Kassel, Germany along with over 300 other art pieces for the 13th edition of the dOCUMENTA Art Festival September 6th through 16th, 2012.
See Also RETRO COLLAGES: COLORFUL REMIXES OF YESTERDAY
Farmer’s chosen images show a photographic history that encompasses politicians, products, icons, innovations, current events and pop culture from each week of the 5 decades. Each cut-out picture is affixed to wooden sticks to bring three dimensionality and depth to the enormous installation. It would be amazing to walk through the exhibit with a person who lived through all of these decades and hear their stories and memories of each event. Whether you recognize the people in each cut-out or not, “Leaves of Grass”, named after transcendentalist Walt Whitman’s collection of poetry, shows the evolution of societal values and culture in America. See more images of Vancouverite, Geoffrey Farmer’s collage at Transform.
