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Cyanotypes, X-ray prints, and experiments with photosensitive chemicals are at the centre of this exhibition about the process of image-making
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Dark-room paraphernalia, including chemicals and tubs to wash photographs, gives visitors their first clue: Al Revelar, starting at Vadehra Art Gallery this weekend, is an exhibition about the process of making photographs. The first picture in the show—a child with a painted-on moustache scowling down at visitors from a powdery indigo cyanotype, by Mexican artist Fernando de la Torre—cements the idea that it is also an exploration of the old techniques of image-making.
“I wanted to bring back the materiality of the photograph in the show. What interests me is that a photograph becomes an object once you print it," says Julia Villaseñor, curator of the show by three artists: B. Ajay Sharma, Natalia Ludmila and de la Torre.
Experiments with photography have taken some strange and interesting turns in recent years. If the hyper photography of Paris-based Jean-François Rauzier is a triumph of modern-day technology and artistry (each of his pictures has 10,000 times the resolution of ordinary photographs), there are also experiments that are a throwback to older techniques like playing with long and multiple exposure and cameraless photography.
Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography, which is on till 6 September at the J Paul Getty Museum in California, US, is showing works by seven photographer artists who work with materials like 100-year-old photographic paper and a custom-built camera that prints directly on 50x80-inch paper rather than using film.
Al Revelar is similarly, simultaneously new-age and backward-looking: It’s a throwback to the early days of photography, says Villaseñor. The difference is that back then chemists were experimenting with materials that would produce sharper pictures in shorter time. Now, artists are colouring out of the lines to see what else they can do with the medium.
Sharma’s works will be exhibited in a separate room from the rest of the show. A recorded voice will announce the details of missing persons on loop.
In the larger exhibition area, starting with de la Torres’ scowling child, visitors can see the results of a month-long residency on the chemistry of making photographs. From the powdery indigo child to a sadhu set in a midnight-blue frame (each hair of his beard is discrete), de la Torres’ prints are a record of his journey through India and an investigation into his own photographic practice.
The residency, and show, are in some ways about “taking the time and patience" for photography, according to Villaseñor.
A lot of theory, hit-and-trial and patience went into making the five prints on cotton voile in Ludmila’s part of the exhibition titled Jal. The theme of this work is environmental degradation. Ludmila says it took the artists at least 3 hours to make one cyanotype, and that was after fixing on the idea and process that would work best to flesh it out. There were many misses along the way too. “If the water (for washing a photograph) is 1 degree Celsius too warm or its cloudy one day, the whole picture is ruined," she says.
Because the focus is on the process, the artists will also be sharing a blog on the mistakes they made and the misses that were part of making the show at https://syahgharfotostudio. wordpress.com.
In terms of the techniques, Ludmila says the exhibition “comes full circle". All pictures in this show started out as digital pictures before the artists tried different techniques to reinvent them. And the show culminates in a digital collage of 10 images.
Al Revelar will be held from 6 June-3 July, 11am-7pm (Sundays closed), at Vadehra Art Gallery, D-53, Defence Colony (46103550).
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