Synchrony and diachrony

Amanda Maddox, Robert Polidori

This book presents 35 photos of the Getty Center taken shortly before the 1997 opening of its new multipurpose complex designed by Richard Meier. Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the center, the book reveals behind-the-scenes views of the building as objects from J. Paul Getty's painting, sculpture and decorative arts collections were being installed inside it. In September 1997 The New Yorker commissioned Robert Polidori to photograph Meier's building. Within 48 hours he had made images of its exterior but remembers being unsatisfied: The building looks great, but it could house anything really--a hospital, a university, or even some corporate headquarters. Polidori wanted to document the museum's interior, to capture what he calls "some sort of museological typology," and proceeded to photograph the rooms in which artworks were either freshly installed or...