DARKROOM
all images are © the artist unless otherwise noted
Adam Fuss
Fuss constantly re-thinks the photographic process in pursuit of images that embody the ephemeral. Exploring themes of life, death and transcendence, Fuss states that “in order for any photographic technique to work, it should be personalized and transfigured into a greater metaphor, engaging processes that take place in the natural world”.
Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York
Key words: Photogram - Shadow - Contrast - Movement - Xray - Trail
Douglas Capron
"In my pursuit of beauty and harmony through photography in my series 'Hydrology', l explore the concept of "Material Expressivity" as advocated by Manuel DeLanda , which suggests a “deliberate use of melody and rhythm in existing matter.” This project is a study of natural patterns that occur progressively as water transforms into ice during the prelude to winter. My intention was to express the ephemeral mystery of these impressions that were gradually morphing into solid ice on a small urban park lake. These complex and elaborate formations serve as organic signatures of expression On a molecular level, crystallization will occur only when the first two molecules will lock together using some microscopic particles in the water as a nucleation point. A single bacterium, a speck of dust,or some other very tiny object is necessary to provide the initial template upon which the crystal begins. The resulting “Material Expressivity” illustrates an expression of a unique identity for all matter and essence existing within an urban environment."
Key words: Ice - Crystalize - Pattern - Texture - Contrast - Movement - Organic - Shape - Long Exposure - Water - Frozen
Elaine Duigenan
The ‘Net’ is an intricate web of possible connections; grand themes of ‘love and loss’, ‘light and dark’ knotted with opposing forces of ‘freedom and control’... Delicate pathways capable of securing and unraveling in equal measure… Like the sister series, ‘Nylon’, this shares similar notions of vain control, precarious states and unsettling beauty…
Key words: Net - Nylon - Contrast - Control - Delicate - Secure - Photogram - Beauty
Erno-Erik Raitanen
As the name Bacteriograms implies, this series is closer to photograms than photographs. These images are made without a camera, by cultivating bacteria on the gelatin surface of the negatives, using a similar process as the one used in laboratories to grow bacteria on agar in petri dishes. With this work I want to raise questions about representation and reality; the nature and the place of photographic medium in contemporary society.
Key words: Bacteria - Photogram - Negative - Nature - Reality - Abstract - Grow - Colour - Micro - Organisms
Garry Fabian Miller
He works in the darkroom, shining light through coloured glass vessels and over cut-paper shapes to create forms that record directly onto photographic paper. These rudimentary methods recall the earliest days of photography, when the effects of light on sensitised paper seemed magical.
Key words: Camera-less - Light - Magical - Colour - Pattern - Stencil
Lisa Folino
Max Parsons
Long Exposure Geometric Photography
Key words: Shape - Long-exposure - Geometric - Pattern - Contrast - Tone - Movement
Meghann Junell Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff makes large scale chromogenic photograms, photographic compositions made in pitch darkness, that investigate the potential for the insignificant to evoke the immense.
Key words: Photogram - Macro - Micro - Colour - Space - Pattern - Organic - Alien
Pamela Bannos
Pamela Bannos works with old snapshots that she acquires from flea markets and internet auctions, reprinting and manipulating them to introduce new meanings or to reveal something that was not the discernible intention of the original photographer. In her recent series The Light (2007-2009) Bannos dodges out specific parts of the photographs to create glowing globes of light within the scene. Appearing like the elusive will o’ the wisps of folklore, these ghostly white forms are an engimatic presence that hold the attention of the people depicted in the snapshots.
Key words: Light - Mystery - Missing - Glow - Narrative - Ghost - Past - Evidence - Found - Experience
Roxanne Worthington
This series called Breath is about looking. Many of the images in this body of work are photograms, made without a camera or a negative. To make these images the flower is placed directly under the enlarger light. As light shines through the flower the image is captured on photographic paper. The flower ‘dies’ and whatever images are made that day are all that’s left of that particular life.
Key words: Photogram - Shadow - Nature - Objects - Moment - Time - Contrast - Death - Evidence
Tierney Gearon
By superimposing two, quite unrelated images into one, she invents scenes that are startling, surreal, and engaging yet also fleeting and ephemeral. They are vastly different in character from all of her previous photographs in that they present a multi-dimensional (sometimes kaleidoscopic) view of Gearon’s world that challenges perceptions of time, scale, and space. Her method of composing creates, within each work, contrasts of settings and the juxtaposing of themes.
Key words: Double Exposure - Time - Space - Scale - Contrast - Juxtapose - Narrative - Dimensions
Yenny Huber
Her projects 48 hours andUrban Rooms show the many facets of various cities — empty, lonely places and streets; grand buildings; railway stations and other public sights — all compressed into multiple, dense layers, that take the spectator on a visual journey through urban space.
Key words: City - Multiple - Layers - Urban - Empty - Lonely - Double Exposure - Buildings