Historic Processes / Contemporary Visions

Historic Processes / Contemporary Visions by Aline SmithsonJune 16, 2013

©Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman
Unique Cyanotype over archival pigment print

As part of our Photolucida celebration, I am sharing a new exhibition at the Dina Mitrani Gallery in Miami that opened on June 8th and runs through August 31, 2013. Dina attended Photolucida in hopes of finding interesting work, and as a result has an exhibition featuring 10 photographers, 7 discovered at the portfolio reviews. The exhibition, Historic Processes/ Contemporary Visions is a group show of artists working with alternative processes to make photographic images. These methods include 19th century techniques such as daguerrotype, wet plate collodion, cyanotypes, platinum prints and photogravures. The making of these prints can be time consuming, labor intensive, and at times toxic. The manual aspect of many of these processes also creates an element of chance, giving each image unique characteristics.

Artists included in this exhibition are Curtis Wehrfritz, Erin Malone, Fritz Liedtke, Gloria O’Connell, Heidi Kirkpatrick, Ken Lyon, Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman, Lisa Blair, Rachel Phillips and Rafael Balcazar.I asked gallerist Dina Mitrani what she was looking for at the reviews:

I went to Photolucida as a first time reviewer with a very open mind. In general, I tend to show international contemporary artists, usually those that explore the narrative, poetic or conceptual aspects of creating images. Before the event, I had met with a Miami photographer using platinum and cyanotype processes, and seeing his work planted a seed for the idea to organize a group show. I had worked with some platinum prints in a gallery in New York many years ago, and really loved the tones and textures, so i was excited about the possibility of showing this type of work in my gallery.

At Photolucida i was (pleasantly) surprised to meet so many artists working with these alternative processes and I decided to put together a group show for the summer. I am very excited about bringing this type of exhibition to the Miami community and show how contemporary artists are using historic techniques to make work! So far, I have had great response to the show. I am grateful to the artists who so quickly shipped their work out to me and made this possible.

©Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman

Unique Cyanotype over archival pigment print

In this digital age, there has been a resurgence of artists working with these “hand-made” methods. Currently the standard analog photographic printing process is the gelatin-silver print, and the standard digital processes are the pigment print and the digital laser exposure on traditional color light sensitive paper. The works in this exhibition are examples of how contemporary artists are rediscovering and using historic methods to make photographs, as well as applying new technologies and practices to these techniques.