Rhino

Available Sizes:
36 x 72 in $2,750.00 Edition of 20
48 x 96 in $4,500.00 Edition of 10

In Point Blank, Lusztyk’s magnification of handguns at once anthropomorphizes and abstracts its subject to create demystified portraits of an infamous machine. High-resolution images are made up of many separate shots, stitched together in post-production to maximize detail at such a large scale. Presented with the “impossible perspective” of looking down a gun’s barrel—however unnerving—viewers are also offered a rare opportunity to study the imperfections of a cultural object both fetishized and feared. These flawed, monolithic studies of Point Blank are born of curiosity rather than a desire to glorify danger, while supporting the many possible and conflicting readings the subject elicits. Indeed, the series recalls the dramatic firearm character studies Robert Longo’s Body Hammers (1993), but also the industrial typology of Bernd and HIlla Becher’s 1970s architectural grid series. What each project shares in is the power for the photographic medium to lend new aesthetic potential to its subjects—the recognition of the degree to which scale, detail, and context precariously mark the borders between meanings. Point Blank has been exhibited in Canada, US, UK, Switzerland, and France. Work from the series was featured in Bruce MacDonald’s 2013 film The Husband and the Netflix series Hemlock Grove. Work from the series has been published in publications including Wired, The Atlantic, Daily Mail, Le Monde, and Esquire.