Thomas Bangsted at Marc Straus Gallery

Danish photographer Thomas Bangsted’s WWII scenes at first read as strangely hi-res documentary images until revealed as masterpieces of reconstruction. Photographing objects and vehicles from war museums and collectors, building his own props (like the life raft in the foreground) and tracking down remaining ships, Bangsted pictures the maneuvers that won the war, including this episode in the Allied effort to sink one of the largest warships ever made. (On view at Marc Straus Gallery on the Lower East Side through Dec 10th).

Thomas Bangsted, Port of Embarkation (Lady Liberty SS Margaret Knight), pigment print, 85 x 115.8, 2012 – 2017.