Photography is …
DIFFUSEROOTS Presents:
Friday, February 4, 2011
Bell Arts Factory, Ventura, CA
6:00pm-9:00pm
An impromptu exhibition of artists at the photographic frontier
Photography is … is an impromptu exhibition of artwork that tests the definitional boundaries of photography. In an era in which collections of binary data have overtaken the traditional chemical trappings of photographic art, the question begs to be asked: What exactly is (and isn’t) photography?
The show, the first in a series of Diffuse Roots gallery showcases, challenges conceptions and reconceptions about what can be considered photography. Each of the artists pushes the boundaries of the medium in an effort to force viewers to engage their ideas about photographs and consider the possibilities of a medium that is too often constrained by customs and customers.
Abstract
As technology and artistry evolve, the landscape of the photographic universe is changing. Binary data have replaced chemical emulsions as the dominant medium for storing the impressions of light, and most photographers today engage in very different processes than their predecessors. At the margins of contemporary photography, some artists are pushing even further, broadening conceptions and hallenging preconceptions, asking viewers to consider what photography is and what it could be. Among these artists are several working in southern California today, including Ricardo Rodríguez, Daryl Peveto, James Dewhirst, Sarah Sinclair, Jesse Groves, Loredana Gaudiuso, Sang-Hoon Lee, and Paul Myers.
Artists
Daryl Peveto
Photography is personal.
Daryl Peveto is a Southern California photographer with a passion for social documentary storytelling. Over the last few years he has worked on a range of projects detailing subjects ranging from American nomads to the black market economies of Peru. His work has been recognized by PDN, Fraction Magazine and F8. Among his recent projects is (re)SOURCE, a look at we collect, manage and use energy resources. These images were created through multiple exposures on film captured with a Holga toy camera.
Ricardo Rodríguez
Photography is the recycling of reality.
Ricardo Rodríguez is a photographer, curator, and multimedia artist from Puerto Rico. His photographic works are highly conceptual, blurring the line between reality and representation. The work shown here consists of unmanipulated images of objects that are not what they appear to be. The pieces challenge preconceptions of verisimilitude by toying with common visual associations, exploring and exploiting the thin line between perception and deception.
Paul Myers
James Dewhirst
Photography is turning an ordinary scene into something extraordinary.
James Dewhirst is a photographer born and raised on the plains of North Dakota whonow calls California home. A talented and technically trained photographer, he has in recent years begun to experiment with his capture process in an effort to find new artistic outlets and remove himself from the rigidity of technical work. One such experiment involved the design and fabrication of a mount that would allow him to take long exposures of car trips. The resulting imagery, which combines aspects of color field painting and early expressionism, provides a new and interesting perspective on memory and experience.
Sarah Sinclair
Photography is full of unexplored potential.
Sarah Sinclair is a photographer and graphic artist from northern California who has migrated south. A rather short artistic attention span has led her in many directions, with much of her most recent work exploring abstraction, expression, and an archeology of the photographic process. The work featured here is a sampling of Sinclair’s expressionistic darkroom paintings made from film, fix, and other photographic chemicals. Produced entirely without a camera or optical manipulation of any sort, the pieces lie somewhere between traditional photography and painting.
Jesse Groves
Photography is an ever-changing space for dialogue between society and the humanity that inhabits it.
Jesse Groves is a photographer and gallery curator transplanted to Southern Californiafrom New England. Much of his work involves an artistic exploration of the forms relationships that make up the world and the human space within it. The work shown here is part of an ongoing project to create portraits by overlaying exposures taken at different times, usually several minutes apart. The resulting images represent both a departure from and a respect for traditional techniques.
Loredana Gaudiuso
Photography is creativity, innovation, expression, and art.
Loredana Gaudiuso is a photographer and printmaker who hails originally from Bogotá, Colombia, but has lived in California for more than a decade. Among her many artistic pursuits, she produces collage-like prints on paper utilizing and manipulating photographic sources. She uses her camera, found photographs, and photomanipulation software to produce the imagery seen in her designs. Featured here are several such pieces representing a spectrum of Gaudiuso’s printmaking techniques, which include
woodblock printing, linocut, and etching.
Sang-hoon Lee
Photoraphy is the reflection of an artist and his philosophy.
Sang-Hoon Lee is a photographer and multimedia artist from South Korea. His work ranges from traditional photography to installation and found object art. The work shown here is part of series for which Lee makes diorama-like paper constructions, which he shoots in black and white with a medium-format film camera. The resulting images represent an imaginative universe of Lee’s own creation rooted not in truth buy in the sheer exploratory power of thought.
