Paper Light addresses the intentional alteration of traditional darkroom printing methodology. Embracing the physicality of silver-based photographic paper and the alchemy of photographic chemistry, this exhibition represents a selection of candescent prints…photographic images “painted” with light and glowing within the paper’s surface.
From its truest definition, photography is “the process or art of producing images of objects on sensitized surfaces by the chemical action of light or of other forms of radiant energy, as x-rays or gamma rays.”* (The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, College Edition,1968) My radiant energy of choice is light itself, creating images identical in scale to the original object, yet completely unlike their actual physical appearance.
Captivated by the simplicity of the photogram process, the Paper Light portfolio began in 2010 and continues to the present. The conceptual underpinning for this work is the re-interpretation of photographic truth…the stretching of boundaries from the original to the newly invented. Similar to a novel, Paper Light is loosely divided into chapters, seemingly dissimilar in appearance, complete when read in their entirety.
Beginning and ending with the Letter Press series: Proof Print and Every Thing, the chapters continue with: Time and Space, Paper Patterns, Conversations, Opacity/Translucency, Under Study, and Paper Light Redux.
All prints are unique silver gelatin photographs created between 2010 and 2021.
Selected sizes: 11” x 14”, 12” x 16”, 16” x 20” and 20” x 24”
All work Copyright Claudia Smigrod