Gary Auerbach
Gary Auerbach’s photographs articulate a tension between durability and transience. He combines photography, a short lifespan medium, with platinum printing and the photo-engraving process, giving his work a life of 500 to 1000 years. Photo-engraving, moreover, involves the intaglio hand-wiping of every print, giving a personal touch to the finished result. Concern for permanence, in an alienating instantaneous world, may result from his life experiences. A native New Yorker, he has lived in Arizona for years: the former epitomizes contemporary society’s fleeting character, while the latter’s landscape has all the mythic solidity of pre-modern times. Regardless of its source, this thematic concern structures the medium and content of all his photographic images.