Light Paper Process: Reinventing Photography

About this book

From its beginnings photography has been shaped by the desire to understand and explore the essence of the medium. Light Paper Process features the work of seven artistsAlison Rossiter Marco Breuer James Welling Lisa Oppenheim Chris McCaw John Chiara and Matthew Brandtwho investigate the possibilities of analog photography by finding innovative surprising and sometimes controversial ways to push light-sensitive photographic papers and chemical processing beyond their limits. A panoply of practices emerges in the work of these artists. Some customize cameras with special lenses or produce images on paper without a camera or film. Others load paper rather than film in the camera or create contact-printing with sources of light other than the enlarger while still others use expired photographic papers and extraneous materials such as dust and sweat selected to match the particular subject of the photograph. All of the artists share a willingness to embrace accident and chance. Trial and error contribute to an understanding of the materials and their potential as do the attitudes of underlying curiosity and inventive interrogation. The act of making each image is like a performance with only the photographer present. The results are stunning. This lavish publication accompanies an eponymous exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from April 14 to September 6 2015.