Deerfield, WI [industrial park signage], from the "Sites of Southern Wisconsin" series

Maker Koch, Lewis American, b. 1949

Date1981

MediumGelatin silver print

Dimensionspaper: 11 in x 14 in; image: 9 1/2 in x 12 1/2 in

Credit LineGift of the artist

Object number2022:43

About the ArtistLewis Koch uses photography, sculpture, and text to call attention to elements of everyday life and to emphasize the interconnectedness of the world at large. His primary subject matter is the industrial landscape, paying particular attention to the elements that are distinctly suburban. He carefully sequences some of his images into assemblages that appear somewhat sculptural when seen together, as a way to further explore links between forms.

Lewis Koch studied history and philosophy at Beloit College, Wisconsin. During his time as an artist-in-residence at Copenhagen’s Fotografisk Center in the early 2000s he created the web project Touchless Automatic Wonder which collected fragments of found text he had photographed over the years. These images were published as a photobook of the same title in 2009. Koch has had solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Wisconsin Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and others. His work is in the permanent collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Maison Européene de la Photographie, Paris; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to name a few.