Mount Hamilton Sanatorium
2015.02.01
Zimmerman’s first project was Lost Hamilton Landmarks created between 1994 and 2009. The title of the photographic series refers to the city of Hamilton, Ontario, where the artist was born and raised. Lost Hamilton Landmarks draws upon the artist’s experience and memories from his childhood, combined with his interest in ambitious and authoritarian-styled, pre-war national building programs. The imagery suggests massive forms, reminiscent of 1930s architecture, but it also demonstrates ideas of communism, fascism and New Deal social democracy.
Zimmerman states, “although the oversized and often monumental subjects were fictional, their credibility none-the-less tended to be confirmed by an authoritative understanding of medium of photography and of the art institution. One surprising outcome in the Lost Hamilton series suggested the apparent willingness of the viewer to accept a very specific fabricated past.”