Chris McCaw

Sunburned GSP#628 (Pacific Ocean)

2012

Sunburned GSP#871 (Great Salt Lake, Utah), 2015 Gelatin Silver Paper Negative Unique 12" x 20" (30.5 x 51 cm) Framed: 15 5/16" x 23 15/16" (39 x 59 cm) Chris McCaw builds his own large-format cameras and outfits them with powerful lenses typically used for military surveillance and aerial reconnaissance. Instead of film, McCaw inserts expired fiber-based gelatin silver photo paper directly into the camera. Pointing the lens at the sun, McCaw makes recordings ranging from thirty seconds to as long as 36 hours. The sun, intensified by the lens, scorches its path across the paper while creating a solarized image of the landscape or seascape below – a “direct positive” image made in-camera, without an intervening negative. These burned lines and holes are tangible traces of the act of making each photograph: marking time, recording location, mapping weather conditions and channeling light.

Breuer has consistently challenged the conventions of photography by rejecting the use of camera, film and negative in favor of interacting directly with material. Eschewing conventi...

Chris McCaw’s ongoing project ‘Sunburn’ has caught fire in recent years, and McCaw’s work exhibits internationally, including: the Getty museum in LA, the Somerset House Trust in Lon...

Chris McCaw’s ongoing project ‘Sunburn’ has caught fire in recent years, and McCaw’s work exhibits internationally, including: the Getty museum in LA, the Somerset House Trust in Lon...