KCET Artbound "John Divola and the Photography of Modern Ruin" by Liz Ohanesian
"Abandoned houses are one of the few places where you can go and paint anything you want and nobody is going to yell at you," says John Divola.
Divola, whose work is the subject of the multi-venue exhibition "As Far As I Could Get," has taken his camera into a variety of environments over the past four decades. However, it's the vacant, dilapidated home that have been a constant throughout his career. He has found the structures in the San Fernando Valley and in the shadow of Los Angeles International Airport, along the coast at Zuma and deep into the Inland Empire. The modern ruins provided a studio when Divola couldn't afford one. Divola could add to a scene that already existed, perhaps with a few strokes of a paintbrush, and then photograph it. They remain a part of his work, even now that he has his own space amidst the business parks and storage units of Riverside. Ultimately, these venues held an intrigue that went beyond practicality.