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Doug Rickard (photographer)

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Doug Rickard (May 27, 1968 – November 30, 2021)[1] was an American artist and photographer.[2][3][4][5][n 1] He used technologies such as Google Street View and YouTube to find images, which he then photographed on his computer monitor. His photography has been published in books, exhibited in galleries[6][7] and held in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[8] Rickard was best known for his book A New American Picture (2010).[9] He was the founder and publisher of the website on contemporary photography, American Suburb X, and the website These Americans which published some of his collection of found photographs.[10]

Life and work

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Rickard was born in San Jose, California and brought up in Los Gatos in the San Francisco Bay Area. His father was a prominent pastor and many family members were preachers and missionaries, with a "very Reaganesque, patriotic view of America",[11] a country "special and unique".[12] Rickard studied United States history—slavery, civil rights—and sociology, at University of California, San Diego, and "lost his faith in this family vision. His adult view of America was a land not just of great achievement but also of massive injustice."[11] At age 12 he witnessed his father having a secret extramarital affair, which he confessed to his congregation years later in 1988. Rickard said this experience prompted him "to look for the fault lines in the American dream."[6] He took the firm position that art did not need to be edifying, saying, "I don't think I'll be chasing any happy endings with the work I do."[13]

He lived in Shingle Springs, near Sacramento, California.

Rickard was founder and publisher of the website on contemporary photography American Suburb X, which the British Journal of Photography considers "influential";[14] and the website These Americans, which published some of his collection of found photographs.[10]

His most noteworthy books are A New American Picture (2010, 2012) and N.A. (2013, 2014).

A New American Picture

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For his series A New American Picture, Rickard "wanted to look at the state of the country in these areas where opportunity is non-existent and where everything is broken down",[11] where "the American dream was shattered or impossible to achieve".[15] It is said that this work comments on United States politics, poverty, racial equality and the socioeconomic climate, class; the use of technology in art, privacy, surveillance, and the large quantity of images on the web.[16][17] Rickard said A New American Picture was about America and not about Google Street View.

He began work on A New American Picture in 2008, whilst working a day job in software sales at Cisco Systems.[6] Rickard was at his computer nightly for over three years, taking 10,000 to 15,000 photographs, choosing about 80 for the series.[7] He used a digital camera on a tripod to photograph[17][18] a dedicated screen that mirrored a second screen that he used to navigate.[4] He digitally manipulated the images to remove Google's watermark and crop extraneous information,[16] resulting in a wide image from the wide screen computer monitor.

He cited as influences the photobooks American Photographs (1938) by Walker Evans, The Americans (1958) by Robert Frank, Uncommon Places (1982) by Stephen Shore and American Night (2003) by Paul Graham.[18]

The work was first exhibited as part of Anonymes: Unnamed American in Photography and Film, curated by David Campany and Diane Dufour at Le Bal, Paris, in 2010.[19] To mark that occasion Rickard produced the first edition of the book, with the publisher White Press.[19] Its first American museum show was at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 2011.[6]

Parr and Badger include the book in the third volume of their photobook history.[20]

N.A.

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N.A. is a body of work photographed from YouTube videos, which he began working with in 2008 to 2009.[21] The series portrays scenes of violence and crime in urban settings, often filmed on mobile devices. The title of the work is meant to be National Anthem, but is a deliberate reference and double meaning for 'N/A' (Not Applicable) as appears on forms, to signify that he considers many of the people depicted in the series are marginalized. "I came to the understanding pretty quickly that social media and the internet put into place a real predatory dynamic, where basically it motivated people to take video of other people to put up on YouTube to get shares, likes or comments."[21]

Death

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Rickard died on November 30, 2021.[22]

Publications

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Books of work by Rickard

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  • A New American Picture.
    • Cologne: White / Schaden, 2010. Edition of 200 copies. With text by Rickard and Helge Schlaghecke. Includes 69 photographs.
    • Larger format, expanded edition. New York: Aperture; Berlin: Koenig, 2012. ISBN 978-1-59711-219-2. With an introductory essay by David Campany, "In the Frame", and a transcript of a conversation between Rickard and Erin O'Toole. Includes 79 photographs.
  • Tom. Los Angeles: Little Big Man, 2013. Edition of 300 copies.
  • All Eyes on me. One Picture Book 86. Portland, OR: Nazraeli, 2014. ISBN 9781590054154. Edition of 500 copies.
  • Patriot Act. London: Wild Life, 2014. OCLC 911411734.
  • N.A.

Books with others

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Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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  • 2012: Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, 2012[23]

Exhibitions with others

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Collections

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Rickard's work is held in the following permanent collections:

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Critics are divided on whether to consider him an artist or a photographer. Rickard described himself as "an artist working with digital technologies".

References

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  1. ^ "Douglas Rickard Obituary - Placerville, CA". Dignity Memorial. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  2. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (23 May 2012). "Mishka Henner's erased images: art or insult?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  3. ^ Jörg Colberg (23 May 2011). "Google Street View getting interesting". Conscientious. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b Grow, Krystal (3 November 2014). "Explore the Dark Side of YouTube with Artist Doug Rickard". Time. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  5. ^ Burnett, David (29 October 2012). "Call it Art. Or, Don't!". The Photo Society. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d Gamerman, Ellen (12 September 2013). "The Fine Art of Spying". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  7. ^ a b Moakley, Paul (24 October 2012). "Street View and Beyond: Google's Influence on Photography". Time. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  8. ^ a b "Doug Rickard: American: 1968, San Jose, California". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  9. ^ Renstrom, Elizabeth (17 September 2015). "Doug Rickard Documents America Through Recreated Snippets of YouTube Videos". Vice. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  10. ^ a b Klapheke, Rachelle (26 October 2012). "Doug Rickard's Street View". The New Yorker. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  11. ^ a b c Appleyard, Bryan (11 December 2011). "Google Street View as Art". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  12. ^ Foster, John. "A New American Picture: Doug Rickard and Street Photography in the Age of Google". Design Observer Group. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  13. ^ Matthews, Katherine Oktober (2018). Unique: Making Photographs in the Age of Ubiquity. Amsterdam, NL: House of Oktober. p. 55. ISBN 978-94-93075-01-6.
  14. ^ a b Smyth, Diane (2010). "The View from the Streets". British Journal of Photography. 157 (7783). Incisive Financial Publishing Limited: 58–61.
  15. ^ Hoby, Hermione (14 July 2012). "Google muse: the new breed of street photographers". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  16. ^ a b "New Photography 2011: Doug Rickard". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  17. ^ a b Rosenberg, David (5 June 2013). "A Portrait of American Life on Google Street View". Slate. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  18. ^ a b Jackie Higgins (2014). The World Atlas of Street Photography. Yale University Press. pp. 76–82. ISBN 978-0-300-20716-3.
  19. ^ a b David Campany (21 June 2012). "'In the Frame' Doug Rickard: A New American Picture, Aperture, 2012". Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  20. ^ Parr, Martin, Badger, Gerry (2014). The Photobook: A History Volume III. London: Phaidon. pp. 310–311. ISBN 9780714866772.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ a b Matthews, Katherine Oktober (December 2, 2015). "Likes Will Tear Us Apart: An Interview with Doug Rickard". GUP Magazine.
  22. ^ "Doug Rickard Death, American Suburb X founder & artist is dead". InsideEko.com. 3 February 2022. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  23. ^ "Doug Rickard: A New American Picture". Yossi Milo Gallery. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  24. ^ "Anonymes: L'Amérique sans nom : photographie et cinéma". Le Bal. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  25. ^ "New Photography 2011". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  26. ^ "A photographic 'Street View' tour of America". CNN. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  27. ^ Brook, Pete (12 November 2013). "Take It From a Publishing Pro: The Photobook Format Is Up for Grabs". Wired. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  28. ^ Renstrom, Elizabeth (16 October 2012). "Remixed, a New Take on Aperture Classics". Time. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  29. ^ "Aperture Remix". Aperture Foundation. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  30. ^ Stone, Tim (17 May 2013). "A New American Picture: Doug Rickard's Google Street View road-trip". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  31. ^ "Doug Rickard". Stills Gallery. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  32. ^ "Doug Rickard)". Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  33. ^ "Photography Collections Database: Record Detail)". Harry Ransom Center. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  34. ^ "#83.016417, Detroit, MI, from the "A New American Picture" series)". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  35. ^ "Doug Rickard: #82.948842, Detroit, MI. 2009)". Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  36. ^ "Doug Rickard: American, born 1968". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  37. ^ "Displaying records 1 - 3 from the 3 total records". Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 8 May 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  38. ^ "Search results - NYPL Digital Collections". New York Public Library. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  39. ^ "5 results for "doug rickard"". Yale University Art Gallery. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
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