Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Christopher Colville
Flux Variant 4

2018

About the Item

Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by igniting a small portion of gunpowder on the surface of silver gelatin paper. In the resulting explosion, light and energy abrade and burn the surface while simultaneously exposing the light-sensitive silver emulsion. I loosely control the explosion by placing objects I have gathered in the field on the paper’s surface, but the results are often surprising and unpredictable as the explosive energy of gunpowder is the true generative force creating the image. I believe that by working in these ways, the images push the material and symbolic limitations of the medium. They turn the photograph inside out while creating something that is both serendipitous and elemental. The images are the residue of both creation and obliteration, generated from a single spark. From Colville's Artist Statement: "When I look into the night sky I am awestruck by the darkness that is the universe. As the sparse light of the stars descends, I am entangled in a state of wonder, searching for a better understanding of who I am and where I fit in to this world. Carl Sagan wrote, “…the universe is mainly made of nothing, something is the exception. Nothing is the rule. That darkness is commonplace; it is light that is the rarity.” This sense of wonder cast by light in the otherwise impenetrable darkness is a driving force behind this current work."
More From This SellerView All
  • Dark Hours Horizon 98
    By Christopher Colville
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by ig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

  • Untitled Work of Fire Diptych
    By Christopher Colville
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by ig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

  • Dark Hours Horizon 99
    By Christopher Colville
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by ig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

  • Dark Hours Horizon 101
    By Christopher Colville
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by ig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

  • Untitled Work of Fire (Hydra Triptych)
    By Christopher Colville
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by ig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

  • Dark Hours Horizon 28
    By Christopher Colville
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Christopher Colville is an American artist working to push the boundaries of the photographic medium in both experimental and traditional forms. His images are created outdoors by ig...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

You May Also Like
  • Flower Implosion - black and white contemporary abstract flowers photograph
    By Kimberly Schneider Photography
    Located in New York, NY
    I began making photograms with alternate light sources in 2020, due to having an unfinished darkroom at the time of the shutdown. (Fortunately, the wet side was nearly complete just prior and I had a ton of old European sized Forte in my paper safe to experiment with). "Into the Ether" was my first in-depth body of cameraless work, which was completed at the end of the year. All of my images are essentially subconscious self-portraits which reveal themselves during my printing processes (that applies to both film-based prints and unique darkroom darkroom prints made without the use of a camera). This award-winning series took shape while in the height of covid-based isolation. However, making the work led to my now current occupation, as I now specialize in experimental photograms and teach some of my processes. "Flower Implosion" was one of my first sparkler exposures involving moving water; Made with flowers and water, this triple exposed sparkler-o-gram debuted via an online exhibition...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Black and White, Photogram, Silver Gelatin

  • "Against All Odds (aka Here I Go Again)" - black-and-white contemporary photo
    By Kimberly Schneider Photography
    Located in New York, NY
    This unique silver gelatin print (photogram/chemigram) is one of the newest cameraless landscape photographs of my ongoing "Winds of Change" series. Made with materials I collected f...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Black and White, Photogram, Silver Gelatin

  • Within Reach - unique black-and-white contemporary landscape abstract photograph
    By Kimberly Schneider Photography
    Located in New York, NY
    "Within Reach" - Unique silver gelatin print (mixed process photogram); Made with ice, flowers, sand, glitter, and more. BRAND NEW, printed on Fomatone MG 133, a beautiful, slightly textured chamois paper, in April 2023. [This one-of-a-kind black-and-white photograph is a slightly weird size, as it was made with a sheet of paper that had previously been cut for a test strip. The width is actually 8 1/16"] After falling into photography by way of eastern religions a lifetime ago, the latter quickly found its way into my work, and never left. I think of both my (covid-born) cameraless photographs and my film-based silver gelatin prints as subconscious self-portraits or spiritual landscapes...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Black and White, Photogram, Silver Gelatin

  • Maestro (aka Dancing in the Dark again), Windansea Beach, CA - black-and-white
    By Kimberly Schneider Photography
    Located in New York, NY
    Unique landscape photograph (mixed process photogram/chemigram) made with San Diego specific materials (sand, palm leaves, the Pacific Ocean, and more) and chemically altered with de...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Black and White, Photogram, Silver Gelatin

  • Dreaming in Sequins- unique silver gelatin contemporary black *& white photogram
    By Kimberly Schneider Photography
    Located in New York, NY
    One-of-a-kind handmade print (photogram made sans enlarger). One of my early photograms, made in 2020; I began making alt process photograms in June 2020, due to having an unfinished...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Photographic Paper, Black and White, Photogram, Silver Gelatin

  • Interlaced - unique silver gelatin contemporary black and white analog photogram
    By Kimberly Schneider Photography
    Located in New York, NY
    I began making photograms with alternate light sources in June 2020, due to having an unfinished darkroom at the time of the shutdown. This one-of-a-kind handmade black-and-white pri...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Photography

    Materials

    Glitter, Photographic Paper, Black and White, Photogram, Silver Gelatin

Recently Viewed

View All