DAY 293

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS

Andy Goldsworthy (1956–)

A NATURAL TALENT

Known as both an environmental artist and a photographer, Andy Goldsworthy draws his inspiration and his working materials from whatever is at hand. He has created his unique variety of sculptures all over the world, in places as diverse as the North Pole, the Australian Outback, and the streets of London. Goldsworthy uses a variety of natural materials that he often molds with only his bare hands and teeth. His work ranges from countless painstakingly balanced piles of rocks to a curtain woven from over 10,000 horse-chestnut leaf stalks.¹ Whether using leaves, stones, and twigs, or mud, dung, and icicles, his installations all have a common theme: the celebration of the beauty of nature and its ever-changing, dynamic energy.

Goldsworthy uses photography as a tool to capture the end results of the hours or days he’s put into his creations, many of which are published in collections in his books. His labor-intensive process was documented in the film Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides by German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer in 2001.

Goldsworthy has created installations worldwide at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Tate Liverpool museum in England, among others. Permanent sculptures reside at the de Young Museum and the Park Presidio in San Francisco. In 2000, he was appointed officer of the Order of the British Empire. He is also an Andrew D. White Professor at Cornell University. —GC