Chris McCaw's Sunburn project: The extended exposure causes the sun to burn the photographic paper in the camera. The intense light, as with the black suns, causes solarization. I like how, both in his work and Harlan Erskine's Black Sun Project, the discovery has come from involvement with process; playing around with things and the sheer love of photography. Conceptually strong but the concept follows not leads. I find a lot of contemporary art photography quite empty, too sleek and concerned with its own importance, as if it has been conceived in the cafe at an art gallery. Now I understand why photography became obsessed with its own representation but the loss of serendipity, or rather its smooth absorption into art world agendas is tragic. McCaw describes:
"This new project initially began completely by accident. In 2003 an all night exposure of the stars made during a camping trip was lost due to the effects of whiskey. Unable to wake up to close the shutter before sunrise, all the information of the night’s exposure was destroyed. The intense light of the rising sun was so focused and intense that it physically changed the film, creating a new way for me to think about photography."
But it took skill, experimentation and knowledge to convert this discovery into a successful series of photographs as you can read here. I can manage the whisky fuelled camping element, the other parts still require some work, although last time I drank whisky while camping I woke up on the fire, luckily having put it out through rolling across it.
