After Image

Contemporary Artists & Photography

However the image enters

its force remains within

my eyes

rockstrewn caves where dragonfish

evolve

wild for life, relentless and acquisitive

learning to survive

where there is no food

my eyes are always hungry

and remembering

however the image enters

its force remains...

—

Audre Lorde,

Afterimages, (1981)

April 4 - May 29, 2015

The first photographers were inventors, scientists or those mechanically inclined—the grinding of lenses and the chemical processes were often of more interest to them than the artfulness of the images created. Artful or not, it was immediately apparent how extraordinarily effective photography was at depicting with accuracy the world in front of the camera. Artists became captivated by the new technology. They could easily record a portrait, a view, or a moment in time and revisit it as reference material for their work. Edgar Degas was among the 19th century painters who embraced photography. It’s possible to infer the influence of the technology on his painting from the cropped figures and framing of his subjects.

Edgar Degas, A Ballet Seen from the Opera Box, c. 1884,

pastel on paper, 25.75 x 19.875 inches.

Ever since Nicéphore Niépce, Hércules Florence and Henry Fox Talbot developed fixable photography in the 19th century, there has been debate whether the medium could evolve beyond its use as a documentary tool. The Pictorialism movement of the late 1800s to early 1900s aimed to bring respect to photography as an art form. Pictorialist works would often be soft focus, toned images with the surfaces enhanced to mimic qualities of drawing or engraving. Edward Steichen was a Pictorialist who had trained as a painter. Along with Alfred Stieglitz he opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession. The gallery and Stieglitz’ magazine Camera Work actively promoted photography as a fine art. 

As a young man, Paul Strand visited Stieglitz’ gallery and was inspired by the Pictorialists. Strand later introduced greater abstraction into his compositions and has been credited with bringing Modernism into photography in the 20th century. Alfred Stieglitz followed soon after with his “Equivalents” series, which he insisted were equivalent to the abstract paintings of Wassily Kandinsky. By the 1960s, Vito Acconci was using photography as a means to convey his conceptual ideas of time and space, while Robert Rauschenberg was blanketing his work with photo transfers devising a photomechanical texture the content of which had little to do with the meaning of the work itself. 

Artists have actively engaged with photography in innovative ways since its invention, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that Sam Wagstaff, mentor to Robert Mapplethorpe, changed how it was perceived and valued as art. Wagstaff recognized that photography was undervalued.He began to collect American, British and French photography from the 19th century and eventually amassed an extraordinary collection. He is credited with establishing the modern market for collecting fine art photography. Previously, photography careers had been almost exclusively tied to the media—journalism and advertising. The collecting world had finally caught

up to Pictorialist assertions.

It was the Postmodern 1980s that saw an increased number of visual artists trained as painters fully embracing photography as a medium. Cindy Sherman staged her photographs and challenged the primacy of documentary, fashion and other types of photographic conventions. Jan Groover began juxtaposing images that together had more meaning than a single photograph. At the same time, there was a rise in interest in antique processes, inexpensive cameras and the distortions they made, and prints that would have made Ansel Adams weep with despair. 

Photography now is more simple and accessible than ever. With our camera phones at the ready we’re all perpetual image makers and sharers. We’ve gone from the alchemical dimness of “View From the Window at Le Gras”— the oldest surviving camera photograph, by Nicéphore Niépse, c. 1826—to the vivid, relentless static of our social media feeds. 

After Image is showcasing visual artists who are celebrating the photographic image, but are using it in ways that expand it as an expressive medium and are forcing it to conform to their idea of what a photograph can be. 

Returning to the beginnings of mechanical reproduction in art, Marsha Goldberg, “Smoke Billows from the Scene of a Blast in Bagdad,” and Joey Parlett, “Manassas,” render it back into a unique work of art through carefully distilling the photographic tones into a drawing. 

Nina Meledandri, “#915-3852,” and Kirsten Nash, “Bouquet Installed with Print Display,” find a conceptual relatedness between photography and painting by juxtaposing painting with the photograph, each informing the other and creating new meaning for both. 

Ross Bennett Lewis, “Missing,” like Sherrie Levine, takes a photograph of photographs. Lewis transforms the portraits of victims of 9/11 into a memento mori, a still life of a tragic moment of loss.

 

Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras, c. 1826, photograph on pewter

plate, 6.4 x 8 inches. Below is a version enhanced by Helmut Gernsheim, c. 1952.

Bill Westheimer, “Las Vingeles” takes a small edge of a photograph and by enlarging it to extreme proportions, evokes surreal, panoramic landscapes that cause us to question our idea of place. 

Mary Pinto, “Plant,” Brett Wallace, “Organic #1” and Julie McHargue, “AP 1” to “3,” use the photograph for its color and texture to build three-dimensional objects that transforms the static source material into something visually kinetic. 

Julia Rooney, “I did a series in very hot August,” and Dennis Santella, Untitled, from “Electric Dreams,” explore the plethora of images that have inundated our lives with the popularity of the internet and digital photography. Rooney co-opts the low-resolution screenshots from Skype conversations and transforms them into oil sketches, imbuing them with more personality and meaning than was apparent in the small, deadpan digital captures. Santella explores our increasing fascination with technology and images by capturing a bit-mapped still from a digital video transmission and questions the information our culture is currently receiving. 

Emmy Mikelson, “Elevation no. 24,” takes us directly into the future with her non-object image. The idea of the tangible photograph as an object has been replaced by an image that exists only in digital space. No need for permanence at all, except for the saving of an electronic file. 

Each of the artists in After Image are deconstructing the idea of what a photographic image can be, rebuilding it into something new. By inputting their unique talent into these works, we discover that image making has a means of expression as rich and mutable as painting and sculpture. The photograph serves the visual artist as another powerful weapon in their arsenal of expression.

Arthur Bruso

Raymond E. Mingst

Curators

Artists

Aaron B., Zeren Badar, Melissa Eder, Rose Frisenda, Marsha Goldberg, Robert Gould, Ross Bennett Lewis, Victoria Manning, Peter Matthews, Marianne McCarthy, Julie McHargue, Nina Meledandri, Emmy Mikelson, Alexandra Momin, Kirsten Nash, Joey Parlett, Mary Pinto, Julia Rooney, Dennis Santella, Sarah G. Sharp, Pacifico Silano, Brett Wallace, Bill Westheimer, Hyun-Joon Yoon, Melissa Zexter

 This exhibition was our inaugural exhibition as curators of Art House Gallery in Jersey City.