COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Where the Light Enters
Creator:
Montalvo, Cecilia A.
Subject:
Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Photography
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Photography
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"'Where the Light Enters' is a collaborative photographic project captured in, and around, the barrier
islands of Southwest Florida. Its images have been made with collodion on 4x5 inch metal plates,
and most were developed in a portable darkroom tent. The project seeks to argue that the chemical
effects of the collodion are the process manifestation of the unpredictable and ever-changing
momentary outcomes of that dynamic system, whose permanence is rooted in mutability. The
notion of intentional chance is one of two broad themes for understanding the work; the other is the
interdependency of the processes of scarification and regeneration. 'Where the Light Enters'
explores the surprising possibility that the mimesis of representation is where the truest sense of a
real thing is, that the truth claim is in the made image, and that an artist has to relinquish authority to
process in order to show certain things, and tell certain stories. The project is also about origins, and
going back. It aims to reawaken in viewers an interest in the fundamental rule set that sits behind
everything, and to rekindle that childhood feeling of adventure in the rediscovery of something lost,
secret, and magical."
islands of Southwest Florida. Its images have been made with collodion on 4x5 inch metal plates,
and most were developed in a portable darkroom tent. The project seeks to argue that the chemical
effects of the collodion are the process manifestation of the unpredictable and ever-changing
momentary outcomes of that dynamic system, whose permanence is rooted in mutability. The
notion of intentional chance is one of two broad themes for understanding the work; the other is the
interdependency of the processes of scarification and regeneration. 'Where the Light Enters'
explores the surprising possibility that the mimesis of representation is where the truest sense of a
real thing is, that the truth claim is in the made image, and that an artist has to relinquish authority to
process in order to show certain things, and tell certain stories. The project is also about origins, and
going back. It aims to reawaken in viewers an interest in the fundamental rule set that sits behind
everything, and to rekindle that childhood feeling of adventure in the rediscovery of something lost,
secret, and magical."
Abstract:
*Keywords: photography, historic processes, view camera, wet plate collodion, barrier islands,
origins, magical realism, representation, collaboration
origins, magical realism, representation, collaboration
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design (Atlanta)
Date:
2019-10
Format:
PDF : 23 pages, illustrations (some color)