We’ve received a lot of questions recently about where and how Clarissa Bonet makes the photographs included in her first solo show, City Space + Stray Light. She describes her process in her Artist Talk and in several interviews recently published (Lensculture, Chicago Magazine, Lenscratch, Aint Bad, Dodho). We decided to show you Clarissa’s process using behind the scene photos. We follow her from photographing a new image to making a final print in her studio.
Clarissa begins each photograph for her City Space series by walking around Chicago for hours. She records her experiences with an iPhone and takes notes about the buildings, light and pedestrians. She then uses her notes to recreate dramatic moments and experiences with hired models. The final photographs are carefully staged memories that appear to be snapshots of every day life in the city.
In her Stray Light series, Clarissa shoots in several different cities at night (Chicago, NY and LA). Each image contains an array of glowing windows.
The work continues next in her studio. Clarissa scans her negatives for City Space and begins creating test prints.
And now that she is back in the studio, the Stray Light images are ready to be created! Each image contains many windows and lights that are the source materials for new photographs. Clarissa isolates and saves each window or light separately, creating a large archive of images from one city. She then spends many hours layering these images together to create her own constellation of windows. Once completed, she begins the process of printing each image.
Catherine Edelman Gallery 