[Re]Photography

[Re]Photography explores the notion of utilizing photography as a means of mark-making to create compositions more akin to drawing or painting than that of traditional methods of the photographic medium. Pieces in this series are made up of a succession of translucent velum prints mounted onto canvas. Photography itself serves as the integral means of constructing each piece by either photographing a blank canvas in the setting it rests in, or by digitally compositing the blank canvas over a “traditional” image. The resulting image is then printed and mounted to the previously mentioned canvas, re-photographed, and repeated over several generations; the camera and subsequent print therefore become the tools for mark-making.

Intuitively responding to the previously placed components, each print builds a formalist relationship between various compositional elements. The work explores a chronological documentation of mark-making upon the composition by embracing the camera’s ability to render fine detail and compartmentalizing each generation of print into the frame of the next. Additionally, the translucency of the material adds to the record by exposing the visual foundation each component is built on. Each finished piece intends to emulate elements within the visual vocabulary of Abstract Expressionism, Formalism, and Minimalism while responding to issues throughout photography’s past—namely Pictorialism, photo-montaging, and essays highlighting ideas throughout the medium’s history.

Select images from Dan Herman’s [Re]Photography series are on view in our current exhibition, The Chicago Project VI: Selections from our Online Gallery running through August 29th.