Holden Luntz
Exhibition
Produced on Dye-Sublimated Aluminum
“To me, photography is an art of observation... I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliot Erwitt
“Big, Bold & Beautiful” highlights six exceptionally talented photographers, Harry Benson, Ken Browar, Andre Lichtenberg, Deborah Ory, Melvin Sokolsky, and Joyce Tenneson, who have expanded the boundaries of their work by incorporating technological advancements in their photographic prints. These highly-acclaimed, celebrated photographers, who have had their photographs printed on paper, are using the sublimated aluminum process to enhance the presentation and resonant potential of their work within the fields of portraiture, fashion, photojournalism, and landscape photography.
Long before the camera became ubiquitous in our culture, photography started as a scientific invention. People long held the yearning to capture special moments and to preserve them. This idea has continued throughout the history of photography, evolving, changing, continually reinventing itself and showcasing the medium’ malleability to find new forms of presentation. From daguerreotypes to photograms, and from film negatives to camera-less photography, photography’s linkage to science and technology has always challenged the limitations of the medium, searching and providing for a more versatile way to develop the medium’s potential.
Seemingly present within walking distance of every significant cultural moment, from the Beatles first landing in America to MLK speaking in Canton, Mississippi, Harry Benson’s photojournalistic style and candid approach effectively create penetrating portraits that preserve the legends and memorable instants of world history. He has taken some of the most impactful, influential images of any photojournalist of our modern time. Harry Benson’s archive is truly “living history.”
Photography innovator, Melvin Sokolsky, whose bold ideas and experimental approach to fashion shoot expanded the creative limitations of the genre; going against the grain of 1950’s studio photography, he created poetic illusions, predating the idea of photoshop and changing the course of fashion photography. Sokolsky’s images were so uplifting they appeared to defy gravity and highlighted the enormous potential for allure and magic in image-making.
Joyce Tenneson’s elegant, harmonious, and ethereal images, are records of the phenomenon of an intrinsic spirit. Whether the photographer captures an incisive and straightforward portrait, a profile of an apple tree in situ, or a detailed, color study of a flower, Tenneson’s work delves into the essence and luminous capacities of live beings. The spirit that animates a living entity continues to fascinate her.
Andre Lichtenberg’s dreamlike childhood memories, sensibility with color, and inclination towards highly technical, scientific work create a unique perspective and savvy aesthetic. His series “Impossible Utopias, ”is made of a multitude of separate images fused into a dreamscape, inspired by the landscape’s horizon and the sea looking out over the English Channel. Andre Lichtenberg ultimately delves deeper into tropes that have interested him since childhood, art, and math, creating highly original photographs pieced together almost like a puzzle.
For a duo concerned with capturing the world of New York City dance, Ken Browar and Deborah Ory, create images that capture with exceptional quality, the bodies, movements, and infinite grace of some of the world’s greatest living dancers. Their branded name “The NYC Dance Project,” is a collaboration between a commercially successful photographer and a classically trained dancer that together creates a unique series that records dancers from different companies and theaters paired with high fashion to capture beautifully detailed, moving images of dancers whose bodies are stopped in mid-flight by the camera.
These photographers using sublimation onto metal produces beautiful and luminous photographs. This process, in turn, creates high definition, visually stunning images that also contain protective capacities unattainable with prints on paper. The attributes of the aluminum print maintain a scratch-resistant and fire-retardant quality, as the image is infused beneath the exterior coating. The images are archival, as well as fade resistant. This photo printing process creates prints that present the look of analog photography while relying on new standards for image printing using innovative technology.
“Big, Bold & Beautiful” is an exhibition devoted to the joy of large-format photographs that amplify and maximize the content within each image. Opting to use this technique of infusing dyes directly onto specially coated metal prints helps create photographs that become bold, vibrant images, with beautiful clarity and exceptional quality.
Blazing Editions and Chromaluxe have generously sponsored this exhibition.
