San Francisco 37º 48’ 30”

Photograph

-

Calvin University Center Art Gallery

This image depicts a bridge at night under a stunning, star-filled sky, with the city skyline silhouetted against the celestial background, creating a breathtaking and serene scene that blends natural beauty with urban architecture.

This image depicts a bridge at night under a stunning, star-filled sky, with the city skyline silhouetted against the celestial background, creating a breathtaking and serene scene that blends natural beauty with urban architecture.

Name/Title

San Francisco 37º 48’ 30”

Entry/Object ID

2014.2.3

Description

Night scene of a large, dark suspension bridge in the foreground and brilliantly lit sky of stars and planets in the background.

Photograph Details

Type of Photograph

archival pigment print, face mounted to Plexiglas

Category

Architecture, Landscape, On-Display at Calvin University

Made/Created

Artist

Thierry Cohen

Date made

2010

Dimensions

Dimension Description

image size

Height

26-1/8 in

Width

39-1/2 in

Dimension Description

frame size

Height

27-1/2 in

Width

40-3/4 in

Depth

1-3/4 in

Exhibitions

Donna Spaan Contemporary Art Collection: June 1 - August 15, 2015
Light - An Eternal Presence: The Donna Spaan Contemporary Collection of Art, Sept. 8 - Oct. 10, 2015
Permanent Collection Photography Selections: Center Art Gallery - January 4 - March 16, 2018
Spaan Collection: Center Art Gallery - May 29 - July 10, 2018
Loan - Spaan Collection @ Dordt College Sioux Center, IA
Loan - Spaan Collection @ 2nd CRC Grand Haven, MI: January 8 - March 22, 2020
Spaan and PC: Center Art Gallery - February 15 - April 8, 2022
Permanent Collection responses to Jennifer Steensma Hoag's Sabbatical exhibition - November 29, 2022 - January 27, 2023
Spaan Collection: Center Art Gallery - August 27 - November 29, 2024

General Notes

Note Type

Wall Label

Note

Thierry Cohen was born in Paris France in 1963. He began his career in 1985 and is considered one of the pioneers of digital photography. In 2010, Thierry began producing work as part of his Darkened Cities series lamenting the loss of celestial light over the world’s great cities. Mixing precise artistic practices and photo editing software, each work combines a photograph of a cityscape, with a photograph of the night sky free from light pollution. Cohen photographs identifiable aspects of the world’s major cities that represent and resonate with the viewer. Recording the precise time, angle, and latitude and longitude of the city photos, Thierry is able to track the Earth’s rotation and find locations unaffected by light pollution, to then photograph the exact night sky that is no longer visible in the major city. Cohen’s merged images raise questions surrounding the urban nature of the majority of today’s populations; asking what we miss as a result of these transitions, what this disconnect from the natural world has led us to forget or ignore, and how this breaking of natural work and rest cycles imposed by the night sky has impacted people. Ultimately, these two images form a haunting image of how the night sky should appear over urbanized areas.