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Mark Sink
November 11- December 20, 2009
Opening Reception: Wednesday, November 11th, 5:30-8:30 p.m.
The Robin
Rice Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition of photography by
Mark Sink & Kristen Hatgi.
For the last two years Mark and Kristen have collaborated using one
of the earliest photographic methods, collodion wet plate to create
ambrotypes on glass and tintypes on aluminum. They use a 1860 style
view camera to create one-of-a-kind images, which become windows into
an intimate, romantic, and beautiful world of faces, still lives,
nudes, and landscapes. In this demanding process, the collodion coated
tin or glass plates are immersed in a silver nitrate solution, and
then they must be exposed in the camera and developed while still
wet. Serendipitous flaws and beautiful imperfections are an inevitable
part of this imprecise hands-on process.
This show includes a combination of 24 tintypes and ambrotypes, which
are 8x10 and smaller in size. Their intimate sizes ask the viewers
to look closer and spend more time with these photographs to fully
appreciate their power. — A welcome antidote to today's nonstop,
-instantaneous imagery. Paradoxically, this intersection of past and
present gives these pieces an unmistakably contemporary feel. The
two collaborators deliberately play up the ambiguity of time.
The nudes (some recalling E.J. Bellocq's alluring portraits of New
Orleans prostitutes in 1912) are suffused with freshness and sensuality,
even eroticism at times, with nearly all of them coming off as refined
rather than crass.
Fredrick Scott Archer developed the collodion process in 1851. Artists
such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, William Henry Jackson
and Civil War photographer Mathew Brady used the process, due to its
cost and versatility advantages. In addition Sink and Hatgi’s
work can also be seen revived in contemporary artists work such as
Sally Mann, Jody Ake, and Scully & Osterman.
Mark Sink, photographer, curator and teacher, has been making a living
from fine art photography since 1978. His personal work is in numerous
museum collections along with solo and group shows throughout the
US, South America, and Europe. Kristen Hatgi received her BFA from
the Art Institute of Boston in 2008. She has exhibited her photography
in Boston, Washington, DC, and Denver.
For more information please contact Robin Rice at (212) 366-6660 or
visit www.robinricegallery.com
and click "Gallery Information".
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