John Schabel: Untitled, (Passenger #2)

John Schabel's coarse-grained, grey photographs reveal people sitting in front of an airplane window. The pictures are taken just before the plane takes off. Some close their eyes. A small child's hand waves to something outside. Everything exists in a state between relaxation and tension.

The "Passengers" series was shown in the spring 1997 at the Whitney Biannual in New York. Lisa Phillips, who together with Louise Neri curated the Whitney Biannual, writes in the exhibition catalogue:

".......he uses a telephoto lens to capture images of unsuspecting people in airplane windows, people you could never really see that way from outside. You identify with the person observed - the person inside, encapsulated in the plane, waiting in that suspended state before take off. It's a poetic image of alienation that we've all experienced but which has never been visualized in quite this way. They look like portrait miniatures, soft-focused and timeless."

John Schabel was born in Great Falls, Montana, USA, 1957. He lives and works in New York.

Karina Ericsson Wärn