From Out of the Dark

Do you think you need a fancy, expensive camera to take beautiful photos?

Well, think again.

Cheryl Van Hooven’s exhibit, “Ravishment by Beauty,†at The Hotchkiss School’s Tremaine Gallery, is proof that you don’t need the latest gadgets or newest computer software to create exquisite photographs.

For most of her photos Van Hooven uses an old, all-manual camera and Kodak Gold 100 film; but for images such as the “Lilypad Triptych†the camera is even more basic: a 1920s box camera. It’s so old she can’t even see out of the lens. Combine this with the fact that it is a fixed-focus camera, and the images that turn up on the film are a surprise.

Taking the pictures is just the beginning for Van Hooven. The magic happens in the darkroom, where she uses filtration, chemicals and movement of the paper and negatives to create the final work. The “chromas†seen in “Ravishment by Beauty†are an example of the kind of happy accident Van Hooven makes in the darkroom.

“A lot of my best work comes out of mistakes,†she said in a telephone interview last week. “Working with different filters and chemicals in the darkroom, I am able to create something that I would not have necessarily created on my own.â€

Van Hooven’s interest in photography began young. She recalls at age 10, or so, playing with light sensitive paper, the kind where you put a shape or object on it and leave it in the sun and the image is retained on the paper.

“Everything else just sort of fell away,†she remembers. Even though she was always interested in photography, it wasn’t until after a backpacking trip in Europe that Van Hooven realized she wanted to make a career of it.

“I think I am lucky not to have gone to art school. I was able to develop my uniqueness.â€

Within the “Ravishment†show is a series called Broken Homes, which began during her travels across the United States 25 years ago. It captures abandoned houses in various degrees of collapse, from standing tall in Nova Scotia to slowly slipping into a lake in Quechee, VT.  Van Hooven is drawn to houses by their presence, which she described as not “quite human, somehow anthropomorphic.â€

These images are complemented and contrasted by a number of triptychs and diptychs that present bold blocks of color, the self-titled “chromas,†juxtaposed with rotated or cropped images that are perfectly in focus or conversely, blurred to a near mystery.

Van Hooven said her love of the darkroom allows her to become part of the image while she is working. In “Ravishment by Beauty†Van Hooven passes that feeling along to the viewers, and allows us to let everything else just fall away.

“Ravishment by Beauty†is on view until Feb. 3 at The Hotchkiss School’s Tremaine Gallery. The hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. For infrmation, call 860-435-3663 or  go to www.hotchkiss.org /Arts/TremaineGa.asp. All Tremaine Gallery shows are free and open to the public.