room for paper 05 - Natalie Obermaier, indehiscent fruit: recent photographs

Exhibition 05 in the room for paper presents a series of silver gelatin prints by Los Angeles-based photographer Natalie Obermaier, collectively entitled Indehiscent Fruit. The term refers to a class of fruit that remains closed at maturity and does not give up its seed, and the analogy in this s... Read more

Exhibition 05 in the room for paper presents a series of silver gelatin prints by Los Angeles-based photographer Natalie Obermaier, collectively entitled Indehiscent Fruit. The term refers to a class of fruit that remains closed at maturity and does not give up its seed, and the analogy in this series is apt. Obermaier adopts what at first glance seems a simple portrait mode in order to capture the isolation of innocence. Her studies of children evoke the modern malaise of growing up too quickly. Her subjects are marooned but coping in a world of lawns and floods and raking afternoon light where adults have left them to fend for themselves. Obermaier maintains a light touch; she seems to have just arrived on the scene, never contriving and never judging. Her effect is modest, but her impact is profound.