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Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick

Best known as Kahn/Selesnick, the creative duo of Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick has been creating complex narrative “photo-novellas” and sculptural installations since 1988. The former Edward E. Elson Artists in Residence first met at the Washington University in Saint Louis, where they majored in photography. After developing a practice combining painting and photography, around 1995 they turned their attention back to staged photographic panoramas as a technique to “better bring their narratives to life.” The Addison’s image, Brotmorgendammerung (Breaddawn), is an example of the post-apocalyptic epic Scotlandfuturebog, in which film from the Isle of Skye, the Beara Peninsula in Ireland, and the bogs of Cape Cod are digitally combined with staged footage of Phillips Academy students and Addison staff from their Addison residency to bring their future dystopia to life. Comparing his collaboration with Selesnick to a couple of kids playing pirates, Kahn noted in a 2000 interview: “When it’s just a single artist it’s more delusional, but when two people create this world together, it builds a kind of energy. It’s so much like playing.”    

Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick

Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick

Brotmorgendammerung (Breaddawn), 2000 glicée print 2000.80 museum purchase

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