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The stars are dead but their light lives on

What is it that you contain?
The dead, time, light patterns of millennia, the expanding universe opening in your gut.

Rebellious light, imperfect blacks and other process-based aberrations are the foundation of this cycle of work that explores the physical and chemical properties of light and time. By focusing on the attributes particular to the photographic medium, the stars are dead but their light lives on gives a material life to the intangible. This is an unexpected operation to perform with a media renowned for its indexical nature, and yet also poses the most interesting challenge of the inquiry: to ride the crest of what is possible to record. As such, this cycle of work explores an alchemical territory by means of documenting various degrees of the transformation of matter.

Coupled with the photographic investigation are textual, archival, and sound components. This includes a six-part text-based work etched on aluminum plates, as well as an accompanying soundscape entitled Herschel's Outlines. The composition of the score is informed by the 19th century engravings of astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer John Herschel. Through the use of low frequency sine waves and samples derived from on-line archives dedicated to the sonic interpretation of dying stars, the resulting sound print accentuates not only the spatial weight and temporal duration of the visual components, but also the relationship of recorded music and photography, which emerge as bedfellows in the realm of reproducible media. The sound component is presented on reel-to-reel, emphasizing the activity of the analogue device as an event of both history and time.

Image details:

Bridge Meditations (No.2)
C-type enlargements of wet-plate collodion (ferrotype) plate
40 x 32"
2012