Photographs Without Cameras

An exhibit of photographs that have been made without cameras sounds like a gimmick, but “Light + Dark,” the current show at Sohn Fine Art Gallery in Lenox proves that in the hands of skilled artists it results in wonderful and unexpected work. The exhibition is small, featuring just two artists—the American photographer, Chuck Kelton and the English artist, Garry Fabian Miller—but there is much not only to consider but to reconsider here. This is a show that is radiant and gimmick-free.

Chuck Kelton may be better known for his work on behalf of other photographers than for his own art. A renowned photographic printer,  his career in that field stretches for nearly four decades and has seen him work with names such as Mary Ellen Mark, Danny Lyon and Steven Meisel. For his own art, Kelton eschews a camera and creates photograms—the result of exposing photo paper to light—and chemograms, in which photo paper is exposed to chemicals.The resulting landscapes are beautifully strange, abstract images of wild and alien worlds. In these images the land appears to undulate and shift and the skies are often heavy with looming storms, yet everything feels gorgeously imperfect and, sometimes, strangely real. 

Garry Fabian Miller has not worked with a camera since 1984. In the intervening years, he has continually shifted, changed and refined the technique with which he makes his camera-less photographs. During all of this time, Miller has used Cibachrome paper to create his images, but that paper is no longer being produced. When the photographer’s current supply runs out—or expires—he will cease to create his images and his dark room will go to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum already has a large collection of his images.This news adds an interesting layer to a viewing of Miller’s work, the way that both nature and time are linked, the constant reminder that nothing ever stays the same. These changes are apparent again in the way that Miller’s photographs sometimes call to mind other well-known artists. 2010’s “The Middle Place, Golden,” suggests Mark Rothko’s color fields while offering an entirely different take on them: here the lines are more precise, the overall image more angular, the color seemingly backlit. This same manipulation of light, in other images (e.g. “Its Radiant Blaze,” or “Mica”) hints at the light artist James Turell, while “Black Sun,” at first looks as if it could have been taken through a high powered telescope at the exact moment of a full solar eclipse. Miller’s interplays are wonderful, the suggestion of other artists opening our eyes to what is different here, the natural world mixing with photographic paper and chemicals to result in something exuberant and new.

The show runs through September 2 at Sohn Fine Art, 69 Church Street, Lenox, MA

The opening reception is July 7 from 4 - 7 p.m.

For further information, contact (413) 551-7353 or www.sohnfineart.com