High Energy Constructs, Los Angeles, announces Present Landscapes, the first solo exhibition of works by artist Mark Blaisdell. For this exhibition, Blaisdell presents a series of color photographs that capture the backs of buildings: “non-places” behind commercial parks, entertainment complexes and civic institutions. Blaisdell is informed, to a greater or lesser degree, by the work of artists such as Lewis Baltz, the Bechers, and Andreas Gursky. In their clear-eyed explorations of the constructed environment these artists reference a vernacular of architecture familiar to Blaisdell while growing up in suburban California. In response, Blaisdell moves away from their “objective” or more neutral approach and toward an authenticity of presence. Through a concentration on the out-of-site and the generally unseen, Blaisdell’s imagery brings meaning to forgotten recesses. Jon Kessler, the New York-based Artist, and Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, says of the photographs chosen for this exhibition: “[Blaisdell’s] compositions are razor sharp and compete with the best of abstract formalism….Very aware of the precedents of “architecture as place” photography from the 70’s (Adams, Shore, Baltz) and the Germans that accelerated that tradition, Mark is looking for a new subjectivity….” Present Landscapes is the result of Blaisdell’s discipline towards a consistent photography practice, a critical interest in theory and culture, and, via his practice and interests, an overall engagement with the discourses running throughout contemporary photography. It is Blaisdell’s counter-aesthetic and intimacy with composition that has produced such a vivid topographical series of photographs, which capture familiar and unsettling moments imbued with patience, anonymity, and a taking stock of an American landscape sublime.