Gregory Halpern - ZZYZX | Omaha Sketchbook

About

For the first time in Germany, the LOOCK Gallery is showing two groups of works by the American photographer Gregory Halpern.

Omaha Sketchbook (2005–2018) is a 30-part collage in which Halpern brings together images from the heart of the USA from the past 15 years. The city of Omaha, on the edge of which is one of the largest air force bases in the USA, is characterized by what Halpern calls “hyper masculinity”. It pervades a fragile reality, which the photographer describes in his lyrical, ambiguous imagery.

ZZYZX (2016) is a village on the edge of the Mojave Desert, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. His name was given to him in 1944 by the eccentric impostor and miracle healer Curtis Howe Springer, who wanted to put the last word in the lexicon of the English language. With the ZZYZX series of the same name,  Halpern explores the outskirts in the far west of the USA and takes the viewer on a surreal, poetic and mystical journey that pours in the unique light of California.