Figure Studies: Granville Carroll: The Body as Celestial

Figure Studies: Granville Carroll: The Body as Celestial by Galina KurlatNovember 21, 2021

This week in Lenscratch, we look at the work of seven artists, exploring the many iterations of the body in photography.

Granville Carroll searches the unknown, creating universes in the shadow and light of silver particles. These stunning photographs serve as imagined documentation for an event long before our perception while asking questions about the nature of our own existence. Out of imperceptible darkness, entire solar systems appear and disappear into the blackness. The cosmos are a vast and empty place, but Carroll’s unique imagery captures a potential for existence, reclaiming nothingness as a space for power.

I often wander into the space of the unknown, asking questions about the nature of existence. Humanity’s identity is entangled in the mysteries of the cosmos and the fixation to make the unknown known.

There is a connection to creating nothing out of something when working with wetplace; the artist holds the blackened metal place while coaxing an image. Light spills and reflects onto the plate creating nebulous cloudy formations and supernova explosions. From this darkness, shapes begin to form, abstractions reminiscent of the night sky. Carroll creates a narrative out of these abstractions of origin, space, and power while simultaneously reminding us that we are, after all, stardust.

A selection of Carroll’s work is currently on view at Arizona State University’s Northlight Gallery his project Because the Sun Hath Looked Upon Me was recently published in Brink Literary Journal

Cosmotypes

The Cosmotypes create a meeting place where chaos connects to order and light is birth from the void of blackness. I often wander into the space of the unknown, asking questions about the nature of existence. Humanity’s identity is entangled in the mysteries of the cosmos and the fixation to make the unknown known. In this work I am asking, where did we come from, why are we here, and who/what created the universe. The origin story of humanity has yet to be uncovered. These images act as visual metaphors imagining the beginning, middle, and end of time. Starting with the void, I imagine the power needed to make something out of nothing. My existence enables me to form new universes and thus, I reclaim the void of nothingness as a space of creation, a space of origin, and a space of power.

Using camera-less techniques, I create a variety of collodion plates on metal that reflect the creation of the cosmos. The plates start out blank (a black surface), then gets coated and processed so that its surface becomes light sensitive. The final product is a photogram of light and shadow. Stars are born from the light directed onto the surface of the plate. Light spills and reflects, creating gaseous forms that mimic nebulae, supernova explosions, and celestial bodies. Starting from nothing, I create a plane of existence in which form and matter are birth from darkness and light.

Granville Carroll is an educator and Afrofuturist photographer currently based in Rochester, NY. Carroll received a BFA in photography from Arizona State University and a MFA in photography and related media from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Granville Carroll is one of 47 artists on the inaugural Silver List. Carroll’s work has been exhibited in the United States and featured on multiple online platforms such as, Phases Mag, Artdoc Magazine, Humble Arts Foundation, Lenscratch, Photo-Emphasis, and Float Photo.