Rooftop Air Conditioner

Born in New York City, Neil Maurer worked as a reporter and writer before turning his focus to photography in 1969, earning a Masters of Fine Arts in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind in 1975. In this work made around the time of his graduation, we see the influence of Minimalism—the rooftop air conditioner presented almost like a Donald Judd sculpture—as well as a related interest in the spare, “man-altered landscape” brought into focus by the New Topographics exhibition at the George Eastman House the same year.