Continuum Exhibition
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CONTINUUM Works by Noah Doely, April Friges, John Steck Jr., and Kristine Thompson. DURING THE FIRST DECADE OF THE TWENTYFIRST that taking photographs with lm and printing images in CENTURY, what is now commonly referred to as analog the darkroom would constitute an “analog” practice was photography suddenly became obsolete with the prolif- not even possible until digital photography became the eration of digital photography. The invention of the dig- predominant format in the early 2000s. However, the fact ital camera dates back to 1975 when a young employee that lm and darkroom papers gained this new status as at Eastman Kodak named Steve Sasson developed an being “outmoded” also presented an opportunity for art- eight-pound device that could capture an image at 0.01 ists to approach lm-based photography and darkroom megapixels.1 That also happens to be the year in which printing in a context that did not exist before. As analog the iconic American landscape photographer Ansel photographic practices quickly became obsolete with the Adams proclaimed, “the future of the image is going to emergence of new digital equipment, a growing number be in electronic form…You will see perfectly beautiful of artists started to gravitate towards these older materials images on an electronic screen.” 2 It would take almost and processes to perform new experiments. Their inter- thirty years before Sasson’s invention could realize Adam’s est in analog photography did not conform to the logic prophecy in the form of a compact and a ordable con- of the consumer market, which had deemed it no longer sumer product capable of taking quality images. In 2003, desirable. For some artists, the fact that these equipment the sales of digital cameras surpassed the sales of lm and supplies became a form of anachronism may have cameras for the rst time in history, and it became clear even lifted the burden to use them following conventions that the majority of photographs would soon be cap- established over the course of history. In many of these tured through digital technology.3 This emergence of artworks, the materials and processes themselves became digital photography put into question the future of lm, the central focus. Photography’s past that was quickly which de ned the world’s relationship with the medium abandoned by the market was salvaged by artists in ways for most of the twentieth century. As lm cameras quick- that challenged existing ideas of the medium and pro- ly fell out of fashion with the general public, the future of posed new possibilities in its uses. analog photography appeared to be in danger. During This exhibition features four artists who represent this this period, some legendary brands in photography faced recent interest in employing “outmoded” materials and di culties adapting to this new digital landscape. East- processes in making photographs. The works by these man Kodak, largely responsible for popularizing photog- four artists represent an unexpected turn for analog pho- raphy to the masses at the start of the twentieth century, tography after its supposed obsolescence and suggest fell into bankruptcy. Fuji lm drastically scaled down the that it will continue to evolve as an idea within the eld of number of lm lines in production, and Agfa sold o its contemporary art. entire consumer photography division. Cameras, lms, and darkroom papers that were readily available in stores — NORITAKA MINAMI, Curator only recently became increasingly di cult to nd as the 1 Michael Zhang, “The World’s First emphasis of sales shifted to digital. Digital Camera by Kodak and Steve Sasson,” PetaPixel, August 5, 2010, accessed February 1, 2016, https:// This state of obsolescence for analog photography was petapixel.com/2010/08/05/the- worlds- rst-digital-camera-by-kodak- determined by a consumer market that favored a tech- and-steve-sasson. nology that was seemingly more convenient and could 2 Paul Hill and Thomas Cooper, Dia- RALPH logue with Photography, (New York, capture more images. Film photography itself did not NY: Dewi Lewis Publishing, 1998), 337. become useless overnight in terms of its ability to create 3 Je erson Graham, “Film Fades to ARNOLD Digital in Camera Sales,” USA Today, perfectly acceptable images. In fact, lm was still capable February 27, 2003, accessed February 1, 2016, http://usatoday30.usato- of producing a picture arguably equal or superior in reso- GALLERY day.com/tech/techreviews/prod- // LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO ucts/2003-02-27-digital- lm_x.htm. lution to an image recorded by a digital sensor. The notion // DEPARTMENT OF FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS CONTINUUM Works by Noah Doely, April Friges, John Steck Jr., and Kristine Thompson. NOAH DOELY lives and works in Cedar Falls, where he JOHN STECK JR. is a visual artist and educator based is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at the in Chicago. He currently teaches photography at Loyola University of Northern Iowa. In his series Above & Below, University and Waubonsee Community College. Steck’s Doely links the most primitive form of photography (pin- practice draws attention to the materiality of prints and hole camera) with the most primitive form of vision among the memories they are meant to preserve by intentional- living species (nautilus’ eye). Unchanged after 500 million ly allowing the images to gradually disappear from sight. years, a nautilus’ eye is nothing more than a hole on its The photographs are created with traditional gelatin silver body. The way a nautilus’ sight works mirrors the design of papers but without the use of a darkroom or chemicals. a camera obscura, the historical precursor to the invention By disregarding the traditional steps of making an archival of photography. In a camera obscura, light passes through print that “ xes” an image, Steck creates photographs that a small opening and projects an image on the opposite remain sensitive to light and eventually disappear from the side of the darkened chamber. In Above & Below, a pin- surface as visual information. Steck’s approach contradicts hole camera loaded with lm captures dioramas intricate- the idea of permanence historically associated with pho- ly constructed by Doely inside a water- lled glass tanks tography as a form of document. He points out that pho- to resemble the deep-ocean habitat of a nautilus. These tographic images and the memories they represent are deep-ocean dioramas are also illuminated by a small, sin- impermanent like all things in the world. gle source of light like the interior of a camera obscura. These photographs emphasize that light is the essential KRISTINE THOMPSON is an artist based in Baton Rouge, element that makes both an image captured within a cam- Louisiana, where she is an Assistant Professor in the School era and the scene in front of the camera perceptible. of Art at Louisiana State University. Thompson’s Images Seen to Images Felt is an on-going series of photograms APRIL FRIGES currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, made by pressing light-sensitive photographic paper on Pennsylvania, where she is the BFA Program Director and the screen of a computer inside a darkroom. They are Assistant Professor of Photography at Point Park University. the direct impressions of images of contemporary events Friges’ works employ basic principles of the photograph- Thompson has meticulously collected from a range of ic medium to explore the qualities and boundaries of its online news sources. She performs this process in order to materials. Her recent sculpted photographs titled CMY transform photographs that exist in virtual space into tan- RGB challenge the ways in which photography traditionally gible objects that confront the viewer in the physical space functions. In this body of work, she focuses on the materi- of a gallery. The contact printing turns the original digital ality of the paper itself by not employing it as an “invisible” images into ghostly presences and forces the viewers to substrate that merely acts as a surface to record images slow down in analyzing the information present in each shot on a camera. Friges works in the darkroom with only scene. This idea of slowing down is crucial in Thompson’s photosensitive paper and light to create works based on attempt to have people contemplate the horrors depict- the basic properties of the RA-4 process (chemical color ed in the photograms in a way that may not be possible printing). The colors of the works are determined by sub- through digital media. tractive and additive primary colors that are the basis of all color darkroom prints. The papers are then physically manipulated to become three-dimensional objects that go RALPH beyond the atness and rectangularity normally expected ARNOLD of a photographic print. GALLERY // LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO // DEPARTMENT OF FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS.