Title: Attracted to Light series
Date: 1996- 2007
The Starn brothers intension with these photos is to initially "feel" the artwork. What the viewer sees is a microscopic image of a frail powdered moth, but it is blown up in size and put back together on small pieces of paper. So the oh so tiny moth is now a larger more easy to register piece. The processes they use to develop these photographs, coating them in gelatin emulsion onto Mulberry paper that is hand made, strains them and the layers of paper start to peal off or crack. Not only does this add to the older look to the photos, they become velvety and fragile. Just as one sees a furry dusty moth, the images mimic this same texture. Their use of soft light makes these images dreamy and mysterious. They aren't quite on the stance of creepy or scary, but more the route of dark with a strange beauty. They seem experimental like they are challanging their techniques with light and shadow.
Really wonderful response about this image. I like that you discuss the scale of the work - taking something so small and delicate, and making it really large. But, then how the use of materials breaks the image back down into being fragile again. This work is about light... but it almost seems too obvious. As though the moth was the easy stand-in for a symbol of being attracted to light...when what they are probably mostly thinking about is...how the image renders on the paper, and how photography works.
ReplyDeleteGood job! thanks.