« French Impressionism and Boston: Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts | Main | Speaking with Hands. Photographs from The Buhl Collection »
Saturday, November 19, 2005
From Darkroom to Digital: Photographic Variations
The Art Institute of Chicago: November 19, 2005–February 26, 2006
Although photographs are inherently reproducible, photographers have long maintained that the final print is unique. Ansel Adams likened the negative to a musical score, and the print to its orchestrated performance. Pictorialist photographers at the turn of the century labored over their hand-crafted images, making each resulting object as unrepeatable as a painting. Selections of cropping, enlargement and scale, and different photographic processes also contribute to different effects, even from the very same negative. Now, with improvements in digital technology, artists have the opportunity to revisit older images and transform them into something entirely new. ...