Just before he died Ansel Adams published “Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs”(1983), an influential account of the circumstances and technical considerations behind 40 of his most celebrated images. Forty years later, Krajnak inserts her own photographic archive over Adams’ while using her body, hair, and hands to redact his words and alter, estrange, and obscure his original photographs. For OFFSCREEN Krajnak engages with one of Adams’ most popular and widely collected singular images titled Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley 1940. Historic photographs of Yosemite are often considered monuments to the US conservation movement. However, these photographs also trace the violent loss of indigenous land, lives, and rights. In her new installation of MASTER RITUALS I: Ansel Adams (2018 to Present) Krajnak combines archival research, re-photography, and durational performance to consider the complex settler colonial histories embedded within Adams’ photograph.

Performance schedule
October 16 - 20 | 12 PM - 2 PM
October 16 - 20 | 4 PM - 6 PM

Tarrah Krajnak works across photography, performance, and poetry. Krajnak recently joined the UCLA Department of Art faculty, and is now based in Los Angeles. Krajnak is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, and was awarded the Jury Prize of the Louis Roederer Discovery Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2021, the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies in 2020, and the Hariban Grand Prize in 2022, from Benrido, Kyoto, Japan. Krajnak has published three books including “El Jardín De Senderos Que Se Bifurcan” (DAIS 2021), “Master Rituals II: Weston’s Nudes” (TBW 2022) and “RePose” (FW Books 2023). This past year Krajnak’s work was exhibited in Corps á Corps at Centre Pompidou, Paris, Photography Now at Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Aperture’s traveling exhibition You Belong Here: People, Place, & Purpose in Latinx Photography, and in the solo exhibition Shadowings at the Huis Marseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam. Krajnak’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tate Modern, London, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Centre Pompidou, Paris, The Pinault Collection, Paris, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC among others.

Galerie Thomas Zander, founded in 1996 in Cologne, is a renowned for its focus on expanded photography, conceptual art, and diverse media. With six to nine exhibitions annually and participation in international art fairs, the gallery represents 20th and 21st-century artists. It emphasizes photography, drawing inspiration from iconic figures like Diane Arbus and Walker Evans. The gallery also explores the intersection of minimalism and conceptual art with artists like Lewis Baltz and Larry Sultan. Younger artists, including Andrea Geyer and Molly Springfield, continue this legacy. Beyond exhibitions, the gallery offers consulting for collections and publishes art monographs, contributing significantly to the contemporary art world.