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Exhausted Renegade Elephant, Woodland, Washington

Artist Joel Sternfeld (American, born 1944)

Date1979

MediumChromogenic print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 14 1/8 × 18 1/16 in. (35.9 × 45.9 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 × 20 1/16 in. (40.6 × 51 cm)
Overall, Mat: 22 1/4 × 25 3/8 in. (56.5 × 64.5 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number86.171

Terms

People
Elephant
Cars
Trees

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis photograph displays an elephant fallen to the ground in the middle of the road while a group of people observe the distressed elephant. A sheriff car is in the foreground with the driver side door open and a police officer sits inside. A pick-up truck is behind the elephant and a tractor trailor cab is to the right of the elephant. The elephant is laying is a puddle of water (or some fluid) and it seeps down the road towards the sheriffs car. This scene appears to have taken place on a country road with trees on the right and a hill on the left side of the road.

Label TextJoel Sternfeld American (b. 1944) Exhausted Renegade Elephant, Woodland, Washington, 1979 Chromogenic print Museum Purchase 86.171 Using a cumbersome eight by ten inch view camera, Joel Sternfeld photographs the meeting places of humans and nature, capturing the effects of technology on the landscape, and the ways in which landscape has influenced the advance of civilization. Often his images are filled with irony and surprise as he explores aspects of ordinary life. In this exploration, Sternfeld also looked back to the photographic documents of 1930s America taken by artists such as Walker Evans. Sternfeld's photographs allow us to see the beauty of our landscape while acknowledging the price we pay for technology. In 1980, Sternfeld was included in a two-person Chrysler Museum exhibition entitled The American Landscape. Two of his prints are in the collection. Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 11/10/2003