Tag: Mike Osborne

It occurred to me that Mike Osborne’s Federal Triangle is the kind of response some of us are seeking to reflect our assertions and at the same time take what we think we know as itself a fallible system of information – Photography – as its mode of communication. The medium places itself very well in such a case study as Osborne indirectly alludes to the wider conversation above, albeit through an explicit focus on the US political system located around Washington DC. Osborne’s imaginary triangle covers the area between The Capitol, The White House and the National Mall. It is something of a “Bermuda Triangle” of opaque political activity, that to the onlooker is visible only under close surveillance. In making this work, Osborne does exactly that, with his camera searching for evidence to support a theory bordering between the slightly paranoid and the surely absurd idea that there are sinister powers at play hidden from the ordinary person.

“The landscape is so extraordinary—it’s hard to forget once you’ve seen it,” says photographer Mike Osborne, who made the trek west from Washington D.C. for the coveted CLUI Wendover artist residency. “Considering that Wendover’s population is smaller than some big American high schools, there’s an incredible richness to the place. I guess you could say it’s a microcosm of America in certain respects.”