EP 022: VICENTE MUÑOZ

Image Culture

Today on the show I’m talking with photographer and sculptor Vicente Muñoz, whose work I’ve found uniquely resonant in its engagement with architecture and optical phenomena. He has a new book out now entitled Virtual Transparency, which gathers a body of work originally started in 2015. The book focuses on the glass curtain architecture that defines New York City’s skyscrapers. Working at extremely long focal lengths, Vicente photographs the reflections of one building in another, however, much of his attention is on the glass itself. Specifically, he focuses on an optical phenomenon caused by imperfections in the manufacturing process known as roller-wave distortion, which creates unexpected bends and diffractions of light. The resulting photographs are abstracted to the point that, at first, I thought they might be illustrations. After spending some time with this book, I started seeing these distortions everywhere.

I photographed Vicente one day on the roof of his studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. In the photograph you can see him handling a set of concrete blocks in different colors. These objects were cast as part of his body of work Beton, which examines the legacy of Brutalist architecture. You can see the portrait on our website at williamjesslaird.com/imageculture or at our Instagram @william.jess.laird or @image.culture

You can find Vicente’s new book Virtual Transparency on Amazon at the link below:

https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Transparency-Vicente-Munoz/dp/0692763627

I’d like to thank Vicente and Audrey Rose Smith. I’d also like to thank Paul Knox, who wrote the titular essay in Virtual Transparency. This show is produced by Sarah Levine and our music is by Jack and Eliza.

See more of Vicente’s work at: http://vicentemunoz.xyz/#/