BOSTON, MA.— The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA) presents today "Shifting Perspectives: Esteban Pastorino Díaz" in the Grossman Gallery, August 29–October 13, 2008. This is Argentine artist Pastorino's first major solo exhibition in the United States or Canada, showcasing more than 70 of his recent photographs—including prints, lightboxes, and a slide projection of 50 images.
After years of studying mechanical engineering, Pastorino transitioned his long-time passion for photography into a full-time career. The camera as an extension of the human eye is what intrigues Pastorino and he achieves his unique photographic style by taking images with cameras he designs and builds himself.
"The School of the Museum of Fine Arts is proud to bring Esteban Pastorino Díaz to Boston for his first major one-person exhibition in the United States," says SMFA Curator Joanna Soltan. "Pastorino's photographs are stunning in part because they document the world with a newly engineered eye. His creative process begins with the design of the camera and the creation of each image is akin to a research project where every 'experiment' with this new 'instrument' reveals another, unfamiliar layer of reality."
The particular abilities of each camera are revealed in each image and photographic series. "Shifting Perspectives" features two distinct series of photographs shaped by two of Pastorino's cameras:
Kite Aerial Photography (K.A.P.) - K.A.P was inspired by another one of Pastorino's passions, scale-modeling. The some sixteen aerial images showcased in "Shifting Perspectives" bring the intimate feeling of a model-sized world to actual locations, events, and people. A hand-crafted camera mounted on a kite—which can fly up to 400 feet high—captures everything from sprawling cities and modern industrial sites to bullfights and bridges. Pastorino's inability to see exactly what is in the frame when the shutter clicks distinguishes him from the basic notion of what a photographer does: create photos based on visual cues from the surrounding environment. Instead, the aesthetic makeup of his images are defined by the technical piece of the process—the intricate, self-built camera itself.
Panoramics - In 2004, Pastorino began an ongoing series of 3-D panoramics exploring transportation and movement in urban spaces around the world. Whether stationary or attached to a moving vehicle, the film in his homemade stereo-panoramic camera moves at a constant speed producing a 3-dimentional image as long as the film strip. With the help of 3-D glasses visitors can examine the some 8 lightboxes in "Shifting Perspectives," which challenge the mind and eyes to experience movement in the surrounding world—from the bustling crowds in the Shibuya area of Tokyo to travelers on the canals of Venice—in a new way.
Esteban Pastorino Díaz (b. 1972, Buenos Aires, Argentina) was trained as a mechanical technician at the Escuela Técnica Otto Krause (Buenos Aires) and studied mechanical engineering for three years at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Pastorino began his formal training in photography at an advertising school before studying at workshops with prominent Argentine photographers Juan Travnik and Fabiana Barreda.
Pastorino has been artist in residence at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid (2006), the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam (2004–05), and the Photographic Centre of Skopelos in Greece (2002). He has exhibited extensively in Argentina as well as in the United States at Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery, Dallas (2004, 2006) and the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY (2005). His international solo exhibitions include Fotología 5, Bogotá, Columbia (2007), MasArt Gallery, Barcelona (2006), and Galerij Erasmus, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2006), among others.
Pastorino's work is in the collections multiple museums throughout Argentina and U.S. museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His piece Las Ventas #3 has just been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, with funds donated by Leslie and Sandy Nanberg. The entire Las Ventas 5-image series will be included in "Shifting Perspectives."
