Gardens of Bolderaja

fence 02, Riga, Latvia, 2006

fence 03, Riga, Latvia, 2006

fence 04, Riga, Latvia, 2006

plant 11, Riga, Latvia, 2006

plant 10, Riga, Latvia, 2006

fence 05, Riga, Latvia, 2006

plant 13, Riga, Latvia, 2006

fence 06, Riga, Latvia, 2006

canal 07, Riga, Latvia, 2006

canal 06, Riga, Latvia, 2006

On Building Things

Haje is one of many housing developments on the outskirts of Prague. It is a spectacular landscape, a vast hillside garden littered with housing blocks. On Building Things examines the Soviet and contemporary land-use and architecture across six Eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Haje 1, Prague, Czech Republic, 2003

Haje 2, Prague, Czech Republic, 2003

Haje 3, Prague, Czech Republic, 2003

Toward Stresovice, Prague, Czech Republic, 2003

Highway, Latvia, 2003

Cathedral, Narva, Estonia, 2003

Baltic Port, Klaipeda, Lithuania, 2003

New House, Kasmu, Estonia, 2003

Church, Otepaa, Estonia, 2003

House, Lithuania, 2003

Small Forest, unknown location, 2003

Nuselsky Most, Prague. Czech Republic, 2003

Stara Orechovka, Prague, Czech Republic, 2003

Statue, Budapest, Hungary, 2004

A Brooklyn Motion Picture

A Brooklyn Motion Picture was shot in the first ten days of January, 2005 in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. I had just finished The Road to Tallinn and I went to New York with the intention of photographing Brooklyn in multiple exposures from the Subway. In contrast with Manhattan which epitomizes ultramodern homogeneity, Brooklyn appeared as a torrent of images from the past.

Third Avenue Skyline, New York City, 2005

East River Crossing, New York City, 2005

First Deluge, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

Second Deluge, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

Third Deluge, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

First Accumulation, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

Second Accumulation, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

Fourth Deluge, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

Final Accumulation, Brooklyn, New York, 2005

The Road to Tallinn

The photographs that have become The Road to Tallinn began as snapshots from the car window as I travelled throughout Poland and the Baltics, working on the series On Building Things. One year later, I discovered them as a series in their own right. Rather than presenting the landscape as a series of isolated locations, The Road to Tallinn depicts the landscape as an unresolved filmic sequence.

Images 1-26

SOMA

A district of alleyways, freeways, autobodies and nobodies, SOMA was defined by negations. Even the name, itself a geographic negation: South of Market Street.

Birds, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

First Open Gate, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

House, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

First Building, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

First Intersection, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Second Intersection, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Tree, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Second Open Gate, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Third Open Gate, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Second Building, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Gas Station, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

First Overpass, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Second Overpass, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Lansing Street, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Golden Gate, South of Market, San Francisco, 2002

Large Bruce

Large Bruce was conceived and produced in 2005 for the Spring Show at the Walter McBean Gallery of the San Francisco Art Institute. The seventeen-foot tall photograph recreates a portion of the cover of Bruce Springsteen's 1984 album, Born in the USA, originally photographed by Annie Leibowitz, SFAI class of '64. In the recreation, Mariah Brinton photographed me modeling as Springsteen.

10 views

Outer Boroughs

Outer Boroughs was produced in 2005, concurrent with A Brooklyn Motion Picture. With brief, compelling gestures, Outer Boroughs expands on the themes from A Brooklyn Motion Picture; the past, filmic perspective. The series was shot from the windows of a regional train on the outskirts of the New York Metropolitan area.

Outer Boroughs 1, 2005

Outer Boroughs 2, 2005

Outer Boroughs 3, 2005

Outer Boroughs 4, 2005

Twentieth Century Festival

This single image was taken by my father at the Bread and Puppet festival in 1989. I printed the snapshot photograph at ten times its original size.

4 views

San Joaquim

Shot in a single day in 2005, San Joaquim is an unfinished series of more than four-hundred photographs of the San Joaquim valley from the window of a regional train. San Joaquim, aims to depict the valley as it is transformed from a ranch-land into a suburban development: the subtle changes that grow more conspicuous over time.

San Joaquim County, California, 2005

Lighttable

These images are a spectre of my project 'Spring Street', forthcoming in 2007. These photographs came from the neighborhood where I lived in Riga. It follows my interest in 'documenting' sites of rapid economic development but with a few twists. I thought I was immune to the psycological-- apparently not. The images here are straight from the film holder, and sequenced chronologically.

196 images

NICOLAS BLOCK

INFORMATION

NICOLAS

Nicolas was born and grew up in Putney, Vermont, USA, a small town in a rural state. He is a former student at the Putney School, and a graduate of the San Francisco Art institute. In 2005, he recieved a Fulbright Grant for independant research in Riga, Latvia. He currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.

IDEAS

Nicolas focuses on the landscape but he views this subject with a broad scope. The landscape is not just an image of the land, for Nicolas it is a composite mental image of representations and realities. His photographs document a relationship rather than particular place. "I am always very concious of my photographs as photographs, not as spatial illusions. My photographs document real places but more importantly that there was someone standing in that place, looking and photographing."

CONTACT

By email: office +at+ nicolasblock.com
By phone: 415 425 3360

Check out Mix! Mix is a new idea where i'm putting together new media presentations of photographs and video.

Go to MIX new media presentations now!

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NEWS

THE GARDENS OF BOLDERAJA NOW ONLINE
March 10, 2007
Photographs from the February show at Chrissy Bee in San Francisco are now online. The full series of 72 prints is on hold. The complete series will not appear for some time as Nicolas focuses his attention on 'Spring Street' which will appear later this year.

THE GARDENS OF BOLDERAJA AT CHRISSY BEE IN SAN FRANCISCO
February 6, 2007
Selections from Nicolas's recent work will hang through March 10th at Chrissy Bee in San Francisco. The Gardens of Bolderaja is an contemplative look at an allotment garden on the south bank of the Daugava River in Riga, Latvia. Nicolas's garden scenes reflect his interest in themes of site, land use, and the landscape as a text. His photographs, taken in autumn, depict the garden's fences, paths and wild plants with their rough alien textures. Throughout these images there is a discomforting feeling of being watched. Nicolas captures a haunted garden through the absence of people and an attention to the borders between the garden's cultivated and wild spaces. They allude to an abandoned land and imagined catastrophes.

An opening reception will be held Saturday February 10th from 6-9pm.

Chrissy Bee is a Boutique and Gallery located at 622 Shrader St. in the Upper Haight neighborhood of San Francisco California. More information: 415-221-3020. View Flyer

NICOLAS PRESENTS. OCTOBER 19 AT ANDREJSALA
October 14, 2006
Nicolas will present his work on October 19th at Ednica, a new space in Andrejsala managed by the Latvia Center for Contemporary Art. Nicolas will present his latest project as well as work by his contemporaries in San Francisco. More information is available on the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art website.

THE ISSP RECEIVES OVER 100 APPLICATIONS
July 7, 2006
117 applications were submitted in advance of todays deadline. The applications came primarily from Latvians and primarily from those living in Riga. About 20 applications were received from residents of Estonia, France, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

The ISSP has also received a generous grant from SONY corperation, Latvia that will enable the program to provide several professional digital cameras to participants for use during the workshop and improve the technical facilities at the ISSP dramatically.

THE INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY
June 14, 2006
The Ludza workshop program has a name and it is The International Summer School of Photography (ISSP). The ISSP also has a new informative website, www.photoschool.lv. The program has received funding from the European Union and Sony, Latvia.

THE PANTS SITUATION
June 5, 2006
Nicolas is co-authoring a new journal called The Pants Situation.which is also hosted on this site. The Pants Situation chronicles the life of monster Eugene Francis during his time in Latvia. Join Eugene and all his friends as he learns how to express himself in English, Latvian, Monster, Pigeon and Seagull.

EXTENDED STAY
April 29, 2006
Nicolas's stay in Latvia has been extended through November, 2006.

FOTO KVARTALS RELEASED
April 10, 2006
Foto Kvartals is available today at newstands and bookstores around Riga. You can view Nicolas's article and the original english-language text in PDF format here.

LUDZA WORKSHOPS
March 4, 2006
After day-long meetings in the eastern Latvian town of Ludza, Nicolas and friends announce an as-yet untitled photography workshop program to take place there this August. The program will feature educators from five countries and accept up to fifty students from Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

FOTO KVARTALS
February 27, 2006
An article written by Nicolas will appear in the first issue of the Foto Kvartals, due to hit newsstands in March. Foto Kvartals is the the brainchild of Alise Tifentale, novelist and associate editor of the Latvian art magazine, Studija. It is the first Latvian photography journal in recent times to approach photography as an art form, publishing the work and ideas of Latvian photographers and thinkers. Nicolas's article addresses the relationship between the modern subject and the landscape. His photographs appear alongside the text.

LECTURE
January 9, 2006
Nicolas delivered a lecture tonight to students of the Latvian photographer Andrejs Grants at Tehniskaas Jaunrades Nams (The Center for Creative Learning) in Riga. The lecture, entitled "Towards a Photography of Nothing" presented photographs from the history of landscape photography from Timothy O'Sullivan to Thomas Struth. Also included was a special presentation of work by friends Eirik Johnson, Christopher Woodcock, Henry Wessel and Reagan Louie. The lecture focused on photographs with ambiguous subjects or unrestricted themes that emphasized the subjectivity of the medium.

HERE IN RIGA
November 15, 2005
Today, Nicolas began a ten-month visit to Riga, Latvia where he will work on several photographic projects and research emerging Latvian visual culture. This in Nicolas's second visit to Latvia. Photographs from his first tour appear in On Building Things and The Road to Tallinn. He returns to Latvia to refine the themes he debuted in those works and present a portrait of the Latvian landscape. Nicolas's latest photographs of Latvia are published in the 'lighttable' section of this site.