About the Work
Meeting on the Hill exemplifies Justine Kurland's affinity for the landscape image. She is known to travel across the country in an RV with her son, scouting out locations in the American wilderness for her photographs. In Meeting on the Hill a small group of people join on the tip of a cliff, while one lone figure stands aside by the tree in the foreground. The horizon stretches beyond the viewer’s eye, hinting at the large expanse of the terrain. Like most of Kurland’s work, this photograph gives the impression of humans existing in a serene natural environment.
About the Artist
Justine Kurland is known for fabricating fantasy worlds in her photography by placing the nude figure within lavish landscapes, creating idealistic settings occupied by mystical characters. She gained notoriety from participating in the group show Another Girl, Another Planet in 1999, shortly after completing her MFA at Yale University where she studied under famous photographers like Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia. For the show, Kurland worked with adolescent girls, depicting them in secret, sometimes dicey locations, so that they appear as wanderlusts or runaways from the confines of society.
Recently Kurland has continued to work in large-format photography, but she has moved on to the mature female nude, specifically working with pregnant or nursing women paired with their small children. For these projects, she focuses on maternity and feminine independence. However, she has not limited herself to only female characters and also works with both men and women in utopian communes. She has had several solo shows and has worked on everything from published books to the cover and liner notes for the French electronic band M83.
Offered in partnership with:
