The Expeditionary Works

Houston: Houston Center for Photography, 1992. First edition. Softcover. Very good+ condition. Square Quarto. 31pp. Original gray photo-illustrated stiff wraps with black lettering on cover. Dedicated to the artist's parents and siblings. Published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition from February to April 1992, presented in conjunction with FotoFest '92. Design by Lorri Lewis. The front cover photograph depicts Tseng Kwong Chi on Lake Moraine, Canada, the back cover is a portrait of Tseng Kwong Chi and his sister Muna Tseng, taken by Ronald Tseng.
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"Tseng Kwong Chi exposed a complex network of myths for the masses by photographing himself amidst monuments ranging from the sacred (Notre Dame, the statue of Christ in Rio) to the secular (Lincoln Memorial, Eiffel Tower) to the blatantly commercial (Disneyland Castle, a towering Bordeaux wine bottle). His expeditionary series is not only a deconstruction of tourist photography, but of military or royal portraiture and tableaux d'histoire, with al their attendant propaganda (e.g. Napoleon depicted by artists as a Roman emperor or God). Tseng's ten-year pictorial saga was inspired by the idea of history as a complete fabrication." (Barry Blinderman). Illustrated with b/w photographs throughout. Contains chronology, exhibition history, special projects, reviews and publications at rear. Slightly sunned along spine. (Inventory #: 51400)