I really appreciated the photographs I saw at the Howard and Greenburg Gallery because the processes and techniques used were so novel to me. The different variables involved in the processes used to make each photograph allowed the artists to all have their own unique style.
One work that really grabbed my attention was Luther Gerlach’s “Photosynthetic”. From the distance, this piece looked like some sort of aquarium with blue lights, but as I walked closer, I could see kelp. And, when I was right in front of the piece, I noticed that there were three layers of seaweed, which made the seaweed look 3-D and extremely realistic. Since this aquarium-like piece was placed on a wooden stand, I also felt obligated to walked around the art. To my surprise, the back of the piece comprised of another three layers of kelp, but instead of blue lights, the back had violet lights. I really liked that although the frame of the piece was rather small, what was captured within the frame was very large. The thick strands of kelp reminded me of the vast ocean and the lively vegetation swaying with currents. Since the piece is titled “Photosynthetic”, I would infer that the color of the lights might indicate what wavelength light the plants can absorb, but I would love to know from the artist why exactly he chose blue and violet. Is there a deeper meaning to the colors?
I was really curious to know what these separate layers were made of, but I knew for sure it wasn’t photo paper. It turns out I was looking at a type of photograph called ambrotype. This type of photograph was introduced at around the mid-19th century as a cheaper and faster alternative to daguerreotypes. Gerlach made “Photosynthetic” using “two relievo ambrotypes, each consisting of three glass plates”. In this process, a glass plate is coated in iodized collodian and then silver nitrate, followed by an exposure time of around a minute depending on the camera and the brightness. I really want to thank Jerry Spagnoli for curating this exhibit because in the generation of digital cameras, I feel that the complexity of 19th-century photography is often forgotten without exhibits like “A New and Mysterious Art”.
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