Wave Music.

Wave Music. Photographs by Clifford Ross. Blind Spot Book, Aperture published, New York, 2005. 144 pp., 95 tritone illustrations, 10x12".

"Three bodies of work are presented here: Hurricane, Horizons, and Grain. All three groupings present formalist views of the sea - the first two are explicit, whereas the last is implied.

The first group of images, true to their collective name, are exquisite black-and-white photographs of violently crashing waves, full of froth and set against a stormy sky.

Horizons is a dissipation of that energy, a set of chaste and restrained photographs, half-sky, half-sea.

The last component of this triptych is Grain - fields of pure grey, referring to the 'grain' apparent in silver-gelatin photographs.

Taken cumulatively, there is an overt visual decrescendo at play here. Powerful chaos, quiet contemplation, enigmatic abstraction. These rich ideas, presented in a broad movement coursing throughout the book, is at the heart of Ross’project."

-- Darius Himes / publisher's description.