Slab City
2005
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
inkjet print
Dimensions
image: 19.05 × 24.13 cm (7 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.) mount: 40.64 × 50.8 cm (16 × 20 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of J. Patrick and Patricia A. Kennedy
Accession Number
2020.163.66
Art Historical Context
Mark Ruwedel's *Slab City* (2005) is a striking inkjet print from the Gallery of Art's Department Photographs, generously gifted by J. Patrick Patricia A. Kennedy. intimate yet evocative photograph, with an image size of 19.05 × 24.13 cm (7 ½ × 9 ½ in.) on a 40.64 × 50.8 cm (16 × 20 in.) mount, captures the raw, makeshift world of Slab City—an off-grid desert community in California's Imperial Valley, built atop concrete foundations from a dismantled World War II naval base known as Camp Dunlap. Inkjet printing, a hallmark of early 21st-century photography, allows for exceptional detail, colo...
About the Artist
Mark Ruwedel
Mark Ruwedel, born on June 11, 1954, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, initially pursued painting, earning a BFA from Kutztown State College in 1978. He transitioned to photography during this time, later obtaining an MFA from Concordia University in Montreal in 1983. Working as a custom printer in Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1980 honed his technical skills before he relocated to Canada, where he taught a...