Untitled (Model Culture series) 1994 - 1998

Curator: Looking at James Casebere's "Untitled" piece from his "Model Culture" series, you're immediately struck by this almost theatrical starkness, right? Editor: It’s visually chilling. The grayscale, the bare bed, that barred window—it feels like a stage set for a nightmare. It kind of makes you feel trapped just by looking at it. Curator: Casebere doesn't just photograph reality; he constructs miniature architectural models, then photographs them. This gives him control over light and shadow, creating these hyperreal, dreamlike spaces. It’s about how we perceive constructed spaces. Editor: Right, the geometry’s almost too perfect. The way the light pours through that small window…it's as if he’s illustrating Foucault's concept of the panopticon. We see the space; we feel watched. Curator: Precisely, it evokes feelings of isolation and surveillance, but because it's a model, there’s also this element of artifice—are these the spaces of our fears, or just clever simulations of them? Editor: It makes you wonder what’s real and what’s manufactured in our own perceptions of the world. I feel like the dreamlike quality creates such an overwhelming feeling. Curator: Absolutely. It is a small photograph, but the effect is lasting. Editor: A thought-provoking piece.