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| DAVID NAJJAB |
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Untitled (Shoes),
1999, dye sublimation print, wood, cloth 9 1/4" x 9 1/4" x 6"
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David
Najjab appropriates nineteenth-century imagery of the Near East, as created
by Western photographers, to comment on conventions of representation.
In Shoes one can reflect on the shared goal of 19th century expeditionary
photographers to construct an image archive of the world. Najjab builds
a model of a nineteenth-century toy, a three-dimensional viewing device
similar to a zoetrope, to produce the illusion of motion. He presents
a virtual reality panorama as sequential digital prints, and revisits
the 19th century western view of exotic lands from his own perspective.
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| Najjab's documentary
photographs of Arab-Americans have informed his creation of digital panoramas.
In this long horizontal format Najjab reveals an expansive interior, while
he also pushes the limits of traditional straight photography. Unlike his
contemporaries who explore the possibilities of virtual reality in electronic
movies, Najjab emphasizes digital print output. |
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Ramsey, 1999,
dye sublimation print
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| David Najjab's
photographic work has been exhibited at numerous venues, including the Birmingham
Museum of Fine Art in Alabama, the Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina,
and at Harvard University. He has received grants and awards for his work
in documentary photography, including the National Endowment for the Arts
/ Mid-America Arts Alliance Photography Fellowship. He currently is a member
of the Digital Arts faculty at Collin County Community College, Plano, Texas.
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at
Dallas and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Bard College. |
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rights reserved. |