Jeff Brouws
American, born 1955
About
Jeff Brouws
American, born 1955
Jeff Brouws photographically explores the American cultural landscape in its myriad of facets. A self-described “visual anthropologist” with a camera, Jeff Brouws utilizes a constructed narrative and typological approach in the making of his work. Over a span of thirty plus years, Brouws has employed a diversity of themes in his work: the American highway, the franchised landscape, deindustrialized inner city zones, as well as riffing on and re-examining bodies of work by luminary artists such as Ed Ruscha, and Bernd and Hilla Becher. Brouws captures the unique cultural experience of Americana and its iconography, visually documenting a vibrant travelogue through the half-experienced, half-remembered landscape of America’s fading culture. Directing his lens toward these temporary obsolete and abandoned sites of American consciousness, he powerfully transforms images of history and dereliction into contemplative and at times humorous commentary on the collective and expressive experience of the American landscape.
Born in San Francisco in 1955, Brouws is a self-taught photographer. His work is held in major museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; The Nelsen-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Fogg Museum, Cambridge; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; and the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton. Brouws has had over 25 one-person exhibitions since 1980, and has been included in numerous exhibitions including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (2016), Brandhorst Museum (2013), Princeton University Art Museum (2011), Nevada Museum of Art (2011), San Jose Museum of Art (2009), Williams College Art Museum (2003), Norsk Museum of Photography in Norway (2002), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2000). Published monographs include Approaching Nowhere (W.W. Norton and Company, 2006); Readymades: American Roadside Artifacts (Chronicle Books, 2003); Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of the Carnival Midway (Chronicle Books, 2001); Highway: America’s Endless Dream (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1997); and Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations (Gas-N-Go Publications, 1992).
Jeff Brouws
Highway | Approaching Nowhere
-
Route 248, Four Buttes, Montana
-
The Myth of (Upward) Mobility
-
Burning Car I-40, Needles, California
-
Highway 14 (Ice Ammo), Mojave, California
-
Capri Motel, Joplin, Missouri
-
Neon Swimmers, Las Vegas, Nevada
-
Family Accomodations, Fresno, California
-
210 Freeway, Sylmar, California
-
Mint Bar, Sheridan, Wyoming
-
Rocket Drive-In, Kingston, Idaho
-
Eat, Inyokern, California
-
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
-
Route 66, Amboy, California
-
North Wilson Street, Vinita, OK
-
Route 2, Chester, Montana
-
Floating Tire, New Mexico
-
Golden West Motel, Valmy, Nevada
-
Highway 196, Rowley Junction, Utah
-
Three Santas, Lindsay, California
-
East South Street, Hastings, Nebraska
-
Robert Taylor Homes (since demolished), Chicago, Illinois
-
Exit 24 off I-90, Erie, Pennsylvania
-
Fraleigh Street, Red Hook, New York
-
Night Window, Los Angeles, California
Jeff Brouws
Language in the Landscape
-
Terrible, Banning, California
-
Rest, El Centro, California
-
One Squeeze Proves, Bend, Oregon
-
Palm Reader, Atwater, California
-
A lot to give, Ernul, North Carolina
-
Lazo’s, Bakersfield, California
-
Well Cleaned, Well Pressed, Redwood City, California
-
Yes, Steubenville, Ohio
-
Try, Santa Rosa, New Mexico
-
Standard, Schuyler, Nebraska
-
Let Us Help You, Lodi, California
-
Optic, Las Vegas, New Mexico
-
Courtesy, Imperial Valley, California
-
Temperance, Atwater, California
-
Rage, Baker, California
-
Be Careful, Denver, Colorado
-
Money, Denver, Colorado
-
We Have, Victorville, California
Jeff Brouws
Freshly Painted Houses
-
Carmen Red, Daly City, California
-
Flamingo Fever, Daly City, California
-
Tawny Taffy, Daly City, California
-
Tango Blue, Daly City, California
-
Hyacinth, Daly City, California
-
Pretty in Pink
-
Charcoal, Daly City, California
-
Slightly Salmon, Daly City, California
-
Coral Surprise, Daly City, California
-
Brownie, Daly City, California
-
Mandarin, Daly City, California
Jeff Brouws
Carnival
-
Ice Cream Cone, Ventura, California
-
Live Reptile Tent, Ventura, California
-
Coaster and Clouds, Denver, Colorado
-
Derby Races, Santa Maria, California
-
Ferris Wheel (puddle), Daly City, California
-
High Dive, Ventura, California
-
Magenta Midway, Ventura, California
-
No Repeat Rides, Denver, Colorado
-
Skydiver (magenta), Santa Maria, California
-
Skydiver, Ventura, California
-
Tip 'Em Over, Ventura, California
-
Bumper Cars detail, Asbury Park, New jersey
-
3 4 5, Ventura, California
Jeff Brouws
Abandoned Gasoline Stations
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No 11, Taft, California
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 49, Mojave, California
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 8, Delano, California
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No 53, Lind, Washington
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 38, Calipatri, California
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 27, Fall River Kansas
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No 55, Shamrock, Texas
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station No. 32, Casper, Wyoming
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station No. 34, Trona, California
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station No. 44, Santa Rosa, New Mexico
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Bushnell, Nebraska (Ralph’s Quality Service)
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Lind, Washington (Chevron)
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Central Valley, California (Texaco in air)
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Shelby, Montana
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 37, Mojave, California
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 29, Formosa, California
-
Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations No. 33, Harlowton, Montana
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Belzoni, Mississippi
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Catoosa, Near Hydro, Oklahoma
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station, Minnesota (CAFE)
-
Abandoned Gasoline Station No. 28, Little Lake, California
Jeff Brouws
Coaling Towers
-
Coaling tower #19 (looking east)
-
Coaling tower #16 (looking west, oblique view)
-
Coaling tower #72 (looking southwest)
-
Coaling tower #21 (looking east)
-
Coaling tower #41 (looking west)
-
Coaling Tower #8a (looking north)
-
Coaling tower #87 (looking north)
-
Coaling tower #15 (looking south)
-
Coaling tower #67 (looking west)
-
Coaling tower #9b (looking north)
-
Coaling tower #85 (looking east)
-
Coaling tower #94 (looking west)
-
Coaling tower #96 (looking south)
-
Coaling tower #93 (looking northwest)
-
Coaling tower #74 (looking west)
-
Coaling tower #70 (looking west)
-
Coaling tower #65 (looking southeast)
-
Coaling tower #25 (looking east)
-
Coaling tower #51 (looking west)
-
Coaling tower #7a (Winter, looking west)
-
Coaling tower #12a (looking east)
-
Coaling tower #13, (looking east)
-
Coaling tower #14 (looking west)
-
Coaling tower #2a, (looking north)