Statements
+ Abstracts: 2020
-coming soon-
Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. --Josef Albers
+ Transmuting Analogue: Lusio 2019
To celebrate light that only the camera can capture.
Light Experiments were scanned and then animated using CoGe VJ software. Interactive animations were made so that attendees can play with light that would not normally be seen by the naked eye to create unique patters.
Still images and animation created by Megan Kirschenbaum.
Technical wizardry and music by Marcell Marias.
+ ALC x Future Eyes : 2019
Alvin Langdon Coburn is most likely the first photographer to rig crystals in front of a camera creating non-objective forms in a photograph. Already a celebrated portrait photographer and Pictorialist printer at the time, Coburn is considered to be one of the first to create abstract photographs. Trying to invoke the spirit and soul of his sitters, Coburn played with techniques of blurring images, overlapping negatives, and utilizing long exposure. Daunting dark room manipulations catalyzed his exploration in creating these effects within the camera. Inspired by the Vortorism movement in London, Coburn with poet Ezra Pound (who named the movement), started shooting with crystals in 1916. Also interested in mysticism at this time, Coburn and Pound utilized their interest in crystals by rigging them in front of a camera lens in trying to “photograph the escence [sic] of things rather than their husks and shells.” — Letter from Coburn to painter Max Weber, March 17, 1914.
Inspired by lenses given to me by friends, I finally am able to give homage to this man, a pioneer in abstract photography. Further manipulating his images with another crystal layer using the Future Eyes 100mm Crystal Lens I'm creating another point of view, breathing new life into these images, and reminding the younger generation of these historical abstract thinkers.
Original images:
-Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1901 by Frederick Henry Evans
-Vortograph, 1917 by Coburn
-Vortograph, 1917 by Coburn
-Vortograph, 1917 by Coburn
-Ezra Pound, 1917 by Coburn
+ Light Experimetns: 2016 - 2021
“Science is spectral analysis. Art is light synthesis.” – Karl Kraus
Light Experiments are instant film photographs used to learn how light and the camera work together and against each other.
In letting present factors come together, I give control to the mechanics of the camera to direct the outcome of the image. Using a Polaroid SX-70 camera in dark lighting, I click the button to open the shutter and move the camera around capturing light by chance. The camera controls the shutter speed, so only after enough light is read will the shutter close, the image is then captured, and the print is ejected.
+ Iceland: 2011 - 2014
Digital collages from two trips to Iceland in 2011 and 2014. These images are attempts in expressing patterns visualized in the landscape while driving across the island.
+Transmutations: 2018 - 2019
“The changing of bodies into light, and light into bodies, is very comfortable to the course of Nature, which seems delighted with transmutations.”
-Issac Newton
Opticks or A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light
Book III, PT 1, Query 30 (1706)
Book III, PT 1, Query 30 (1706)
Through meditation, the early Buddha experienced a basic concept of nature, that everything is made of vibrating particles. Though the science was not around to prove this at the time, the Buddha’s stories expressed this understanding. This was 2,600 years ago. Thousands of years later, while articulating the physics behind the energy of light changing the states of matter (solids into liquid into vapor) Issac Newton (scientist and alchemist) describes the morphing of atoms using language of ‘body’ and ‘light’. Creating another early realization that matter does not exists; we are just dancing cells of light energy.
With this in mind, slowly gazing at the vignettes one can hopefully witness the transmutation of light in our lives. Maybe even reminding us to gaze slow enough to experience the magic of becoming the light we are made of.
+ Coming down from the treetops with my head in the clouds: 2018
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. Its the true source of art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” —Albert Einstein
+Re-bar Arrow: For Re-bar’s 29th Birthday Celebration, 2019
Insteaed of the typical photobooth portraits, cards with specific planned out shapes were used for each frame shot. 42 photobooth strips were aligned together to recreate the prominent and well known arrow sign outside Re-bar.
Re-bar, a home-base for many, represents Seattle’s funky past. It’s a place where we get weird, where we embrace nostalgia, and where we indulge in late night mischief. Unforgettable memories include after-hours events, seeing Dina Martina’s first Re-bar Christmas Show in 2002(?), New Years Eve parties, adolescent shenanigans in the old parking lot, and too many Flammable’s to count.
Proof that Re-bar is the destination to experience Seattle’s underground music and arts scene spans from Nirvana’s Nevermind album release party in 1991 to Flammable, the longest running house music night on the West Coast to the queer cabaret performances attended by those in the know since the bar’s beginning. Ultimately, it’s the beautiful idiocentric personalities attracted to such an establishment that keeps its essence. But, to commemorate Re-bar's past and hopeful future, I solute two silent historical partners - the photo booth and arrow - supporting an ambiance of quirk which once flooded this rapidly changing city.
Cheers to a new generation to keep Re-bar going!
This project would not have been possible without the Classic Photo Booth Company. Thank you to the generous resources of owner Will, Milton’s follow up, and John’s time. Thank you to the current Re-bar owners, Dane and Michael, for the support.