ALTERNATIVE

Alternative Photographic Processes & Unique Work
July 12 - August 20, 2022

Curatorial Statement

The diverse photographic processes featured in Alternative transcend the tropes of photography; this exhibition showcases a range of techniques including wet-plate collodion tintypes, reimagined cyanotypes, platinum-palladium prints, re-actualized platinum “ghost” portraits, bromoil prints and photo sculptures. These practices, although rooted in the history of the medium, are inspired and innovative. The nine artists, from the Bay Area and beyond, are drawing a bridge between the past and the present with their conceptual explorations and personal observations. Their acute visions animate and invigorate a compelling dialogue, engaging the viewer in new ways of considering the ever-evolving medium of photography.

Linda Barsotti

Photo Sculptures

In her series Flawed Pedigree: The Mosaic of DNA, Linda Barsotti investigates another form of fragmentation by creating photographic sculptures addressing the angst of the possible loss of vision. 

Artist Website

Tony Bellaver

Platinum-Palladium Prints

Exploring another trope of the medium, the landscape, Tony Bellaver captures deforested areas of the West with a medium format film camera, using a 20th century traditional tool and the 19th century platinum palladium printing process to reflect on contemporary environmental issues.

Artist Website

Edie Bresler

Unique Pigment Prints with Embroidery

Another form of early portraiture in photography is the anonymous nude. Edie Bresler, observing the vulnerability of the sitter in a series of nudes captured before 1910, transforms the portraits through alternative processes and applies fine embroidery, creating an echo to the original photograph and imagining the stories of these individuals.

Artist Website

Dora Duan

Toned Cyanotypes

Mastering the unique ability of the medium to observe the self and to create narratives, Dora Duan in her Series “Unsettled” uses the historic cyanotype method to build a metaphorical exploration of the relationship between inner self and external experience.

Artist Website

Charlotta Hauksdottir

Mixed-Media Composite Photos

Charlotta Haksdottir deconstructs her landscape photographs captured in her homeland of Iceland and in California by building sculptural composites. The fragmented photographic cutouts reflect the limitation of the photographic medium in capturing it all, both the landscape and the inner psyche while addressing by its dislocation the complex relationship of humans with their environment. 

Artist Website

Lucien Liu

Unique Bromoil Prints

Lucien Liu, with his unique observation of light, transforms contemporary scenes with a sense of longing and nostalgia amplified by the bromoil printing process.  

Artist Website

Andy Mattern

Platinum Ghost Print

Andy Mattern reactualizes the traditional platinum printing process after observing that historical platinum prints leave a remnant of their images when in contact with paper over decades. By rephotographing these “ghost” portraits and printing the resulting images in platinum, Mattern investigates how photography can reproduce itself through time periods.

Artist Website

Jenny Sampson

Wet-Plate Collodion Tintypes

Jenny Sampson investigates the landscape as well through the traditional wet plate collodion tintype process, imbuing it with a modern flair by repeating the image and using plates of various colors. 

Artist Website

Anne Meredith Terpstra

Unique Cyanotypes

Anne Terpstra destabilizes the photographic image by using circular, painterly gestures when applying the cyanotype solution. She then layers the negatives for her images create visually disorientating effects.

Artist Website