Pasadena Freeway Stills
Gary Beydler
16 mm, color, silent, 6:00 min
USA 1974
The torso of a man. His arms reach into the off-screen space and pick up photographs, which he then places for us to see in the middle of a glass panel positioned between him and the spectator. The speed of the procedure increases, until 24 photographs per second become visible, thus turning into a cinematic trajectory driving down the Pasadena freeway. Beydler’s work is both simple and complex, negotiates the boundaries as well as the similarities between photography and film, while at the same time making us aware of what is going on behind us: What we really look at here is a human body that becomes a film projector, thus turning still images into a moving image, while losing all natural traits in its machine-like speed and precision. (Alejandro Bachmann)
Gary Beydler, born 1944 in Los Angeles, passed away in Mission Viejo, California in 2010.
Reference
Benjamin Lord, “Gary Beydler,” X.TRA 13, 3 (2011), http://x-traonline.org/article/gary-beydler-1944-2010.