Falling Out of Focus
In New York, Clamp Gallery presents “Bill Armstrong | All a Blur,” a retrospective of the celebrated photographer known for using the out-of-focus image as a distinctive artistic trait.
By Gaia Squarci. Photographs by Bill Armstrong.
Bill Armstrong’s creative process begins with research across diverse visual sources, from Renaissance drawings to cinematic stills. He paints, collages, and then photographs these surfaces with the focus set to infinity. Whereas out-of-focus photographs are usually deemed unusable, Armstrong embraces this trait to create a world that decontextualizes and dematerializes the subject, making space for imagination and personal interpretation.
Spanning different series, early “Mandala” images evoke Buddhist cosmology, “Renaissance” collages reframe 15th- and 16th-century drawings into lush color fields with isolated figures, while “Film Noir” introduces cinematic characters.
Recent works, such as “Falling Through History”, use falling figures from across Western art history. Removed from any temporal context and exploring spiritual and human vulnerability, Armstrong’s images exist in the liminal space between representation and abstraction.
The exhibition “Bill Armstrong | All a Blur” is on view at Clamp gallery in New York City until February 28.
