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Joseph Scheer
Thyatira Batis Batis, Nature Photograph of Brown, Beige, Pink Moth on White

2019

$2,000
£1,520.91
€1,754.30
CA$2,801.63
A$3,135.58
CHF 1,637.26
MX$38,254.28
NOK 20,782.91
SEK 19,721.70
DKK 13,100.27
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About the Item

In this hyper-detailed archival pigment print on watercolor paper, a white moth with brown circular markings on its wings is dramatic against a solid white background. Price shown is the unframed price. Please inquire with the gallery for framing costs. Signed and numbered on recto. Installation photo shows framed examples from the same series, for scale. To make his astounding prints, artist Joseph Scheer captures incredibly detailed images of moths with a scanner originally designed for film and transparencies. The tiny micro moths are as small as .25 inch and the giant Silkmoths have wingspans up to 5 inches. Using a special scanner that has a programmable focus for different depths of field, he scans each specimen between 7 and 40 times using different points of focus. Then he painstakingly reassembles them choosing only parts from the files that are in focus. The scanner records so much information—67 million data points per square inch—that a single specimen may take a full day to scan. The data files generated are huge: some of his many layered images are up to 10 Gigabytes before processing. With resolution that high, scans can be enlarged 2,700 percent and still be perfectly clear. Moths that in life rest comfortably on a fingertip dramatically occupy 32 x 44 inch (86 x 116 cm) archival art papers. Only by looking at the moth through a microscope could you see the tiny scales on the body and wings as clearly as they’re revealed in Scheer’s prints. At every step from scanner to monitor to printer, the artist keeps the actual specimen in front of him, constantly comparing his digital representations to nature’s original. “Every moth requires hours of work,” he says. “Color correcting the scan, adjusting the printer so the final image truly matches the moth. It has to be perfect.” Joseph Scheer is a Distinguished Professor of Print Media, and Director/Co-Founder of the Institute for Electronic Arts at the School of Art and Design at Alfred University.
  • Creator:
    Joseph Scheer (1958, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2019
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 32 in (81.28 cm)Width: 44 in (111.76 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    Edition of 12Price: $2,000
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Kent, CT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU19714266442

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