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The Infinities (Of Earth, Heaven & Light)


“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.”    William Blake

"When I feel a terrible need of—shall I say the word?—religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars." —Vincent van Gogh, letter to Eugène Bock, September 1888

2013-2019 This new series of photographic abstractions are part of a life-long project titled: Rethinking The Natural. There have always been elements of abstraction in my work but this time I have combined multiple components such as mold grown in my studio, stars downloaded from robot cameras in space, snowflakes captured on a winter’s night, magnolia trees blooming in spring and unique camera-less Light Projections which I devised for this project and are at the heart of these images. (The Light Projections have been awarded the prestigious World Photography Award for conceptual photography in 2014 as well as being honored in American Photography 30.)

This new body of work is about my idea of the Infinite as it pertains to systems and spaces that we humans can not perceive. I am trying to visualize what the world would look like in its totality. With this series I don’t "take" the photograph. I build it from the ground up. I am very interested in the marks I can make in the darkroom using an entropic process I have developed over the years. I’m equally interested in the ideas I can generate and the ensuing questions I can bring to the medium, its history, language and close ties with painting. For, above all, photography is a language and I believe it’s a medium that is still in its infancy yet moving forward at a very rapid rate.   

Nice short video that explains the work is here

All of my work is about process, looking at things very closely, the marks I can generate with the silver metals in black and white photo paper and especially exploring the spaces between photography and mark making. My work has had a great deal to do with manipulating the photographic surface and this series is just another extension of that exploration.

If there is a rule that defines what a photograph is today it is simply that there are no rules. The question today is just what constitutes a photograph? If every mark in a photograph is made by hand with a camera, lens and light sensitive materials processed in the darkroom, yet it seems more a drawing than anything else then what kind of photograph is it?  Abstraction, Photographic Document or Dream? 

On a good day my images are all three.

Wonderful Catalog essay by Lynn Gamwell from 2016 Paris Exhibiton at Galerie Karsten Greve titled, "Of Earth, Heaven and Light".

 

TB_GKG_Köln_2017_17_(1)_(DF).jpg

Installation View: Of Earth, Heaven and Light at Karsten Greve, Koln

 

 

 

 

 Infinities #8 (for Whistler)
Infinities #8 (for Whistler)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #4 (for Duchamp)
Infinities #4 (for Duchamp)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Installation view
Installation view
Exhibition Karsten Greve Gallery
Exhibition Karsten Greve Gallery
Light Projection Variation #1
Light Projection Variation #1
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #3
Infinities #3
Detail
Detail
Exhibition Karsten Greve Gallery
Exhibition Karsten Greve Gallery
Light Projection Variation #2
Light Projection Variation #2
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Exhibiton Catalog
Exhibiton Catalog
Infinities #5 (For Edwin Hubble)
Infinities #5 (For Edwin Hubble)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #13
Infinities #13
detail
detail
Infinities #20
Infinities #20
Detail
Detail
Exhibition Karsten Greve Gallery / Koln
Exhibition Karsten Greve Gallery / Koln
Infinities #1 (For Moholy Nagy)
Infinities #1 (For Moholy Nagy)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #15 (For MF)   (2016)
Infinities #15 (For MF) (2016)
Detail  of Infinities #15 (For MF)   (2013-2016)
Detail of Infinities #15 (For MF) (2013-2016)
Infinities #22  (For Riley) 2016
Infinities #22 (For Riley) 2016
Detail of Infinities #22
Detail of Infinities #22
Infinities #25
Infinities #25
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #6  2013
Infinities #6 2013
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #25    2016
Infinities #25 2016
Detail of Infinities #25
Detail of Infinities #25
Infinities #23  For E.J. Marey 2016
Infinities #23 For E.J. Marey 2016
Detail of Infinities #23
Detail of Infinities #23
Infinities #10
Infinities #10
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities10earth_final_detail
Infinities #2 (2013)
Infinities #2 (2013)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #15 (For MF)
Infinities #15 (For MF)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #7 ( for Riley)
Infinities #7 ( for Riley)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Detail of print at full size (large editioned prints only)
Infinities #29
Infinities #29
Detail of Infinities #29
Detail of Infinities #29
Infinities #27 (For Midge)  2016  Framed
Infinities #27 (For Midge) 2016 Framed
Detail  of Infinities #27
Detail of Infinities #27
Infinities Installation View
Infinities Installation View
Exhibition Catalog for Download  via home page
Exhibition Catalog for Download via home page
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