Photography is more than pointing the camera at things and then displaying those discoveries to the world. That time for photography has passed into the hands of those with access to a camera phone. And as new people find themselves discovering the magic of photography, we seem to be reliving a previous cycle of photographic history: the explosion of the small camera. We can decide to go down that path again or we can experiment and look for new forms of photography. My work addresses this critical juncture in twenty-first century photography by working against what it means for something to be a photograph. The work uses a familiar form of vernacular photography from the past, the SX-70 Polaroid, an instant analog film, and abstracts the chemistry using a variety of camera-less techniques. In addition, enlarging the images to ten times the instant film’s normal size, the familiar encounter with the SX-70 is taken out of context and brought into a different view. These transformations explore the materiality of photography, the literal ‘insides of the medium.’ The contained pod of chemistry in the instant analog film is detached from its implied representational potential and given a new life that embodies the intersection of art and science.
Images are available in a variety of sizes and framing options in limited editions.
For purchasing information please contact Ryan directly.
