Carbon: Cosmic Worlds of Charles Lindsay
June 24 - September 30, 2009
Following the Upstream work produced in his mid 30s, Lindsay's underwater explorations lead to the discovery of an entirely new photographic process. His large scale photos, often totemic and other worldly, along with HD video and surround sound installations are derived from this process. This is his first solo show after a decade of working at the limits of digital printing technology.
Carbon is the creation of fictitious worlds, drawing on Lindsay's interest in the aesthetics of space exploration, microscopic discovery and abstract symbols. He is intrigued by the idea that so much of our expanding scientific knowledge is based on images from beyond our body's normal scope of vision and interested in the challenge and implications of comprehending our relative scale within the universe.
The ‘photographs' are made from negatives which utilize a carbon emulsion on a transparent base - the result of many experiments and manipulation. This work begins in the analog realm and is then transformed through the latest digital technologies. Numerous generations in the fluid's history create minute evaporation trails, rendering an archeology of time.
Highly regarded art writer and curator Lyle Rexer wrote in his recent book The Edge of Vision - The Rise of Abstraction in Photography that "Among contemporary photographers, Charles Lindsay has taken up where Sommer left off." Frederick Sommer was close friends with Edward Weston and Max Ernst.
