Light Works
April 2012
Light is an elemental force of nature without which our planet would not exist. It is no surprise that the biblical creation story in Genesis begins with a dark, featureless earth which only takes form as God declares, ‘Let there be light’. Light is both a scientific fact; a metaphorical construct and even a spiritual force: it is considered an agent of truth, authenticity and revelation just as the absence of light can signal mystery, danger and disorder.
Light is also fundamental in the creation of photographs. In the 1840s, William Henry Fox Talbot variously called his images ‘sun pictures’ and ‘the pencil of nature’ and stated that they were ‘impressed by the agency of Light alone’. His view that photographs were unmediated creations of Nature was commonly held at the time: today, in contrast, photographers have a more critical approach considering the properties of light as being in the service of their creative ideas.
Throughout its history, photographers have exploited the creative potentials of natural and artificial light in their artworks. In this exhibition of contemporary photographs drawn from the NGV’s permanent collection some of the many ways that this fundamental force has been approached are highlighted.
Mike and Doug Starn regularly consider the properties of light in their work from an allegorical rather than optical perspective. Sol Invictus (or unconquered sun) refers to the name given to a Roman sun-god cult and is also the title of various solar deities in the Classical period. It is a fitting title, too, for a work in which the metaphorical, religious and scientific properties of the sun are explored.
In this complex sculptural tableau, the Starns use Skylab satellite imagery from NASA which is then computer manipulated to produce the raw material. Toned in various hues from yellow to brown, these overlapping sheets of film are held in tension in convex and concave forms by pipe clamps in a piece that combines poetic fragility with brute force. The translucent nature of the orthographic film means that multiple images can be seen overlaying each other as if the sun is in a constant state of flux. Indeed, the solar flares that are recorded suggest this essential fiery orb of hydrogen and helium gas is not only an object of scientific speculation but also a force still to be reckoned with.
Adam Fuss has also engaged with the metaphysical properties of light. His large-scale photograms (camera-less images) resemble luminous mandalas. The spiral images are formed quite simply by hanging a flashlight from the end of a pendulum. With each rotation an oval of light is inscribed on the paper until, at the centre, the rotations merge into a shining glow.
Fuss approaches the subject of light from a spiritual and philosophical perspective: for him light is as much an ‘idea’ as a natural force. As he observes, ‘when one works with the idea of light, one’s working with a metaphor that’s endless … Because you’re talking about something that’s almost just an idea, we can think about it but we can never grasp it … It’s a mystery.’
For Hiroshi Sugimoto the essential properties of light and time are intertwined in images that seem to embody the mystery of both elements. Sugimoto has explained the creative origins of works including Winnetka Drive-In, Paramount saying, ‘one evening I had a near-hallucinatory vision. The question-and-answer session that led up to this vision went something like this: Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? And the answer: You get a shining screen… As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture, and two hours later when the movie finished, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening, I developed the film, and the vision exploded behind my eyes.’ Sugimoto’s photographs show the cumulative effect of the light projected during the screening of the movie. Each projected frame is shown, one on top of another, effectively overexposing the screen until it is reduced to a glowing rectangle of white. In effect Sugimoto has reduced the complexity of cinema to its fundamental element; light.
Traditional analogue photographs depended on light in a basic photo-chemical sense for its creation. However, in digital photography the relationship to light is different: while light is still important; the possibilities to manipulate its effects are dramatically extended. Photographer Sam Shmith has drawn on an image bank of over 60,000 of his own photographs, eventually selecting 30 to 40 from which he then composites his final image. Untitled (In spates, 2) has been constructed from photographs taken in daylight and then meticulously remixed into an evening scene. As Shmith has written, ‘My photographs are a process of literally breaking up the world into objects and then putting it back together’. What he seeks through this process is to create a non-proscriptive emotional quality that could equally be awe or alienation depending on the viewers’ perspective. Shmith’s works may signal an evolution in how photographers create their works using ‘digital light’, but as this exhibition reveals, the desire to creatively work with this primal force continues unabated.
Dr. Isobel Crombie is Senior Curator,
Photography at the National Gallery of Victoria
This is an edited extract from the NGV magazine, Gallery.
Light Works is on display at NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road.
March 23 to September 16. Entry free.
Images:
Sam Shmith, Australian 1980– Untitled (In spates 2) 2011 from the In spates series 2011. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2011. © Sam Shmith, courtesy Arc One Gallery, Melbourne.
Adam Fuss, Untitled (1991). Cibachrome photograph. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. © Adam Fuss. Courtesy Cheim & Read, New York.
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