Unmasked

All of the works in Unmasked were made between 1970 and 1975 in a chemical-based, analog photographic darkroom using fiber-based, black and white, chlorobromide photographic paper processed in traditional chemistry. Employing various experimental procedures with readily available materials, I sought to unmask the hidden potential for releasing color responses on conventional black and white photographic paper. I have also included photographs from the series that are absent of color because I consider them to be central to this project and because their formal and conceptual strategies are compatible with the other works in Unmasked. 

 

The works in Unmasked were made during a period of profound personal upheaval, including the sudden death of my father while playing tennis at age 47. The majority were made during my graduate studies with Minor White at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While a number of other students made photographs that imitated his approaches, I determined to distance my photography from Minor’s and used strategies in Unmasked that I believed were quite different from what could be seen in his work. Viewing these photographs now, though, I realize that while they do not look like Minor’s pictures they undeniably share his work’s passion for self-discovery and its highly charged, raw emotion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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