Abstract Photography from the Permanent Collection

This small, focused exhibition comprised eight works, ranging in date from 1948 to 2014, that feature diverse techniques and approaches to photography, from traditional gelatin silver prints to photograms and experiments with color photo-sensitive paper. While photography is generally understood as a form of documentation, abstraction has been intrinsic to the medium since its invention in the 19th century. Early experiments with light-sensitive materials were camera-less abstractions by necessity. While today we generally associate photography with camera-based images that bear witness to the happenings of life, there are a number of contemporary practitioners who are breaking with the medium's more conventional concerns of perspective, depth of field, and representation (or investigation) of truth or fiction. Many fine art photographers, including those represented here, reject the documentary imperative of the medium in favor of the conceptual and aesthetic possibilities of abstract images. The results are photographic artworks that are visually commanding and compositionally complex and the viewer is left to marvel at the pattern, light, and color - as well as the pure wonder - of the work.