“Terrain Vague” at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center

 

General Photography

You can’t be picky if you live in Pittsburgh and are interested in photographic art. If there’s a show in town you’ll have to go and see it. So I went to see “Terrain Vague” at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center. I should have saved the $10 admission. It must have been one of the worst photography shows I’ve ever seen. If you ignore the fact that the word “vague” in the title quite accurately describes the concept behind the whole exhibition itself the setting was an absolute disgrace for the photography. Cramming the photos - some of them quite large prints by Edward Burtynsky - into pretty small, badly lit spaces is just grotesque. And badly lit there are: Todd Hido’s photos all had pretty large shadows from their frame on them. Somebody else’s prints were quite heavily warped in their frames. But if you really want to go and see the show make sure you’ll also get to see the dinosaurs to get your money’s worth. Too bad I had seen them already. And don’t get annoyed by the grumpy staff of the museum.