Fold the Light
“Let’s work with light, so that rather than light being something that reveals, light itself becomes the revelation.” — James Turrell
“Let’s work with light, so that rather than light being something that reveals, light itself becomes the revelation.” — James Turrell
It is often said that the primary materials of photography are time and light.
It has taken me years to fully appreciate what that means, but I remember the first time it hit me: when I happened to glance up at the ceiling of the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA, just as the sun arced through a bank of windows and lit a sculpture made of glass shards. The light refracting through the pieces made humble glass and wire into something wondrous. As the sun and shards moved, I got a fresh, fleeting view into a smattering of matter that few below noticed as they made their way to the gift shop.
Rather than chasing commotion and “capturing” a scene, I have learned to stop and look for the light in the littlest of moments, to wait for the gift of a revelation. (Sometimes this takes a long time, or doesn’t happen at all.) My favorite subjects are the clean cool materials of modern architecture and sculpture which so beautifully bend and fold light into energetic, abstracted forms. My process is to look, wait, and to find the point at which recognition of the form disappears, to distill and distill, until all that’s left is light.
The images below are a selection from the full series. Click on the tiles to get a larger view and slide show. For more information and to see additional images, please contact me.
