On Friday 19th November 2010 we visited an exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum called the Shadow Catchers. It was about photography without camera. How can that be?, was my first thought. Images are done by playing with light and shadow casted on the photography paper or chemically. The artists have a more interactive role than in photography made using camera as the final image depends on what has been done onto the paper directly, it is something half way between photography and painting.
The artists taking part in the exhibition were Floris Neusϋss, Pierre Cordier, Garry Fabian Miller, Susan Derges and Adam Fuss. I particularly liked the artworks of Pierre Cordier and Susan Derges.
Susan Derges was one artist I particularly liked. She used water to create many of her photograms. Processes like submerging sheets of photographic paper in rivers and using the moon and flashlight to create the exposure seem to me more of a ritual than a technical process. Images like the following look like a proper fairy tale landscape. There is something spiritual and magical in the way she has made those pictures.
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| Susan Derges-Arch 4 Summer |