PHOTO NEW YORK 2005

PATTERSON BECKWITH

His relational/interactive "Portrait Studio" project uses Polaroid positive-negative materials. Visitors are invited to have their picture taken and they receive the Polaroid positive and Beckwith produces books from the negatives. Over the past three years he has set up dozens of such sessions, including the Armory Show in 2004 at Colin Deland’s American Fine Arts booth. Every portrait studio has an originally designd background (or set) and props. These suggestive environments are meant to invite the sitter to participate in the construction of their image by acting or interacting with the set-up they are being photographed in. As he has refined his environments, the setups have become more elaborate and more demanding of the sitter. Most recently they involve black backdrops with which allows double-exposures of people interacting with themselves.
Patterson Beckwith received art degrees from Cooper Union and UCLA. He was a member of Art Club 2000 which was founded in 1992 by Gallerist Colin De Land and students from NYC's Cooper Union. Their collaborative projects included muckraking investigations of systems and institutions including the Gap, Ikea, New York real estate, and Fashion. His installations have been performed in many group shows in New York, Scotland, Rome, Basel and Pittsburgh.