camera-less

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Camera-less, a group exhibition including works by Thomas Barrow, Kate Breakey, Marco Breuer, Richard Caldicott, Caleb Charland, Doug Fogelson, Adam Fuss, Matt Gray, Lotte Jacobi, Glenn Kawabata, Jenna Kuiper, Leigh Anne Langwell, Klea McKenna, David Ondrik, Alison Rossiter, Thomas Ruff, Gayle Stevens, Dr. Dain Tasker, and Pablo Zuleta Zahr. These artists put the camera aside to explore avant-garde approaches in photographic image making. Light-sensitive paper is exposed to chemicals, wax, sparklers, X-rays, rain, flowers, digital processes, and a variety of other materials and methods. This exhibition shows a historical and contemporary sampling of techniques found in camera-less photography. Camera-less is part of PhotoSummer 2016 programming.

Historically, camera-less photography began as an experimentation and was used to record the physical world. Inspired by the X-ray machine, Dr. Dain Tasker began applying his knowledge of the this process to record flowers in the 1930s. Contemporary artist Klea McKenna makes photograms of raindrops to study rainfall patterns in different regions, and Leigh Anne Langwell uses sparklers and handmade glass objects to recreate a microscopic world.

Some of these artists employ an alchemist’s approach to image making. German photographer Marco Breuer exposes silver-gelatin paper to heat and physical abrasion by burnishing, sanding, and scraping with razor blades. Allison Rossiter creates painterly abstract photograms by dipping and pouring different chemicals on expired photo paper from the 1940s, and Caleb Charland exposes light-sensitive paper to wax and lit matches.

A common theme in this show is the notion of drawing with light. Albuquerque-based artist Jenna Kuiper uses a painterly approach to compose abstract still-lives in the darkroom using dodging and burning techniques to build her imagery. Chilean artist Pablo Zuleta Zahr arranges prismatic compositions manipulating photographic filters of magenta, cyan, and yellow on a scanner. Dusseldorf School legend Thomas Ruff also uses digital techniques to create colorful light abstractions. Thomas Barrow and Richard Caldicott visually describe the methodology of camera-less photography by including process information in their final presentations.

Images for this exhibition can be found on our website www.levygallery.com.
High-resolution images are available on request.

Dates: June 4–July 29
Gallery Reception: Saturday, June 18, 6:00–8:00 pm
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11:00 am–4:00 pm
Location: 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 Contact: 505.766.9888, info@levygallery.com