Brad Temkin: The State of Water

BRAD TEMKIN brings attention to the visual and ecological beauty of the transformation of water, by showing the structures and processes that most people do not even think about. Most storm water runoff is considered waste; yet more than 700 cities reclaim and re-use wastewater and storm water with combined sewer systems, recycling it for agricultural uses and even drinking water. As we mimic nature and separate the impurities like sludge or salt or chemicals, a transformation occurs.

Temkin is less concerned with a structure’s use, or whether the water pictured is pure or waste. He is drawn instead to the strangeness of these forms and the distorted sense of scale. Moving beyond mere description, Temkin embraces the abstract and at times surreal landscape of water transformation.

Brad Temkin is perhaps best known for his photographs of contemporary landscape. His work is held in numerous collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago; Milwaukee Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Akron Art Museum; Amon Carter Museum of American Art; and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, among others. His images have appeared in such publications as Aperture, Black & White Magazine, TIME Magazine and European Photography. He has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships including an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in 2007 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. Temkin has published three monographs to date: Private Places: Photographs of Chicago Gardens (Center for American Places 2005); ROOFTOP (Radius Books 2015); and The State Of Water (Radius Books 2019). Temkin has been an adjunct professor at Columbia College in Chicago since 1984.