Public Programs And Events

Aperture Foundation, in collaboration with the Photography Program at Parsons School Design at The New School, is pleased to present an artist talk with David Hartt. The work of Hartt centers around the specificity of sites, and what narratives and ideologies are revealed through it. Interested mostly in “purpose built” spaces—the Johnson Publishing Company Headquarters and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy—his photographs bring to light the outward expression and culmination of ideals that these designed spaces are meant to portray. Hartt explores the difference between the ideological potential of these sites and how the site actually defines itself, often creating gaps between the experience and the actuality of the space. 

With both photography and film, Hartt uses his own biographical inquires as a foundation for his investigation of these built spaces. “Ultimately I consider my work an opportunity to dimensionalize my experience of the world and my place in it.” His photographs are precise yet quietly romantic, often letting the subject—the spaces he occupies—speak for themselves. Although his process includes intense research and conceptual thinking, upon visiting a space Hartt is interested in the encounter and immediacy of experiencing a particular place for the first time. Hartt prefers his work to be slow-moving and awkward, which gives the viewer an opportunity to engage with ideas that they may not have considered. 

David Hartt (b. 1967, Montreal) lives and works in Philadelphia. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1994), and has since had exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Or Gallery, Vancouver; and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Hartt’s work was a part of Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015, the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is the recipient of the Canada Council Project Grant, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists, and the United States Artists Cruz Fellowship.