Much of the early work in this exhibition is fragile in terms of the media and printers that produced it. Terry Gips’ work, produced on an Amiga computer in 1992, is made of many prints that were pasted together. Gips’ images represent artists’ early experiences with producing digital work. The obvious pixilation in the image communicates that it is an early digital file. Today an equivalent image quality could be produced from a cell phone or similar low quality camera.
Keith Piper creates work based on his ethnic identity through the layering and merging of effects to digitally collage multiple images together. Martina Lopez uses similar methods to place vintage black-and-white family photographs into colorful landscapes. Osamu James Nakagawa similarly works with family images, which he layers with filmstrips that read as a rain or confetti, to mediate the memory of his family and culture. These pieces all use digital montage and collage techniques to re-contextualize memory, family, history, and personal identity. What was once the purvey of Jerry Uelsmann, a master of traditional enlarger-based merging of images, has become a common language through digital photography.
Sunil Gupta’s work uses digital processes to combine two images on one page. This seems a simple step, but for Gupta it gives the diptych a literal and metaphorical connection. The two images become one seamless image rather than two photographs butted against one another. This uncomplicated act is certainly one that digitalization makes easier. And, in making the comparisons between two homes, the image becomes more connected both metaphorically and physically.
The photographs in this exhibition are examples of the ways the digital image has changed photographic production and visual language. As Light Work/Community Darkrooms continues to support new types of image production, it is the organization’s challenge to adapt in ways that will best serve the artists and continue to be a state-of-the-art facility.
John Mannion
Digital Lab Manager
Light Work/Community Darkrooms
©2006
Artists in this exhibition include Anthony Aziz & Sammy Cucher, Lois Barden & Harry Littell, Matt Black, Ben Gest, Terry Gips, Myra Greene, Sunil Gupta, Deborah Jack, Mona Jimenez, Keith Johnson, Martina Lopez, James Nakagawa, Barry Perlus, John Pfahl, Keith Piper, Neal Rantoul, Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Kanako Sasaki, Matthew Swarts, Scott Townsend, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, and Kim Waale.
This exhibition was supported in part by a grant from the Syracuse University Division of Student Affairs U Encounter program. It was also supported by PULSE. Light Work is a member of CMAC, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at Syracuse University.

The Robert B. Menschel Photography Gallery is located in the Schine Student Center on the Syracuse University campus at 303 University Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13244. For information, please contact Light Work at 315.443.1300.
The Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery is located in the Joseph I. Lubin House at 11 E. 61st Street, New York, NY 10021. For information, please contact the Lubin House 212.442.2230. |