The Ackland Art Museum Acquires Work by Chris McCaw

 

"GSP#098, Utah is a work from photographer Chris McCaw’s Sunburn series that seemingly illustrates a night sky in which portions of the image’s paper are missing along a dotted line. McCaw produces these images by leaving the shutter of his camera open for extended periods of time. Through the effect of solarization, the resulting artwork has its tones reversed during exposure, and frequently the path of the sun is literally burned through the work, as seen here. What seems to be a sign dulled by evening shadows is actually a billboard baking in the Utah sun. In creating these images, McCaw is limited by his equipment and time constraints: the final image is only as large as the sheet that his camera can hold, and each photograph can take up to a day to create. Because McCaw is using photographic paper in place of flexible film within his camera, the final Sunburns are not reproductions from a negative, but they are instead unique objects that fuse traditional concepts of negative and print. Ultimately, they demonstrate that analog photography truly is a medium that draws with light."

 

— Lauren Turner, Associate Curator for Contemporary Art and Special Projects