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September 24, 2022 — October 22, 2022
Pink Peonies — Marek Matusz
(s)Light of Hand 2022 is a juried exhibition celebrating alternative photographic processes, showcasing the diverse and innovative work of artists who embrace historical and experimental printing techniques. The exhibition features 43 artworks demonstrating a broad range of handcrafted processes including gum bichromate, platinum palladium, cyanotype, lumen prints, chlorophyll prints, Polaroid emulsion lifts, and pinhole photography. Juried by Christina Z. Anderson, a world authority on alternative photographic processes and Professor at Montana State University, this exhibition demonstrates that handcrafted prints remain a vital and evolving art form.
Christina Z. Anderson
Christina Z. Anderson is Series Editor for Focal Press/Routledge's Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography series and Professor of Photography at Montana State University. She has her MFA in Photography from Clemson University and teaches experimental black & white and alternative process photography. Her work focuses on the family snapshot, gender identity, the altered landscape, and the contemporary vanitas, using 19th century photographic processes including gum and casein bichromate, salted paper, cyanotype over platinum, and mordançage. Anderson has shown nationally and internationally in over 130 exhibitions and 90 publications. She has authored six books on alternative processes including Cyanotype, Salted Paper Printing, Gum Printing, and The Experimental Darkroom, which have sold in over 40 countries.
Making a final selection is always difficult because there are so many works worthy of exhibition beyond the ones chosen. Though I was able to narrow down an exhibition to around 40 works from 33 artists, there were an equal number of images in my "runner up" file.
The works chosen represent a broad range of processes: collage, gum bichromate, hand colored albumen, pinhole, lumen, gold-toned salted paper, cyanotype toned and untoned, ziatype, polaroid lifts, chromo, encaustic, chrysotype, chrysotype over ink jet, platinum/palladium, gum over kallitype, chlorophyll over platinum/palladium, platinum/palladium over pigment, tintype, xerox transfer on wood, gum over cyanotype, gold-leafed vellum, and gum over kallitype. The range of processes in this exhibition illustrate that handcrafted prints are alive and well. Artists are often combining processes in their final prints which shows a level of expertise, conceptual thinking, and willingness to experiment which I find quite exciting.
Process is never the whole story, though; an image has to first be well-executed visually. Some examples that come to mind are Tom Wise's spiny cactus (gum over kallitype) and "cactus landscape," Travis Lovell's moody, pictorial tintype, Barbara Wilson's hand colored albumen with the age-old theme of the alluring apple, David Marsh's confident road runner, Denise Oehl's primordial foggy landscape, Jodie Hulden's softly lit trees, Louise Russell's juxtaposed wild landscape/ wild graffiti, Lynne Buchanan's twisty path, Oriana Poindexter's documentation of sea plants, Robert Oehl's soft-focus nude...every selection in the show has something noteworthy like this about it.
Curious about a piece? Click any artwork image to learn more
The Juror's Choice award goes to Marek Matusz, specifically his Peonies gum bichromate work. It is a standout for me for two reasons: he had used the gum bichromate process in a unique and more painterly way than is typically done today with gum printing, and he has integrated the border of the gum print effectively with the image—the border doesn't compete, but compliments. That is harder to do than it seems, actually!
I thank The Photographer's Eye Collective and Gallery for allowing me to be the juror for this show and I thank all artists for taking time to submit their work to it. I loved spending time with each and every submission, living their creativity vicariously. It will certainly be an exciting show to visit in person.
Christina Z. Anderson
Donna Cosentino
In a life dedicated to photography since 1971, Donna Cosentino has been a news photographer, museum docent, curator, educator, and leader in the photographic community. After thirty years of teaching photography, Donna retired and opened The Photographer’s Eye in Escondido, a gallery whose mission is to enlighten and educate the community on the history and art of photography through exhibitions and classes.
