Luminous Intervals: Extended Exposures in Alternative Photography is an exhibition of large-format cyanotype photograms and prints from months-long exposures made with hand-built pinhole cameras by Colin Burke of New Haven.

For the opening of the exhibit, we are pleased to present a free, public afternoon reception with the artist for The State of Connecticut’s 12th annual Open House Day from noon-5 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, 2016 with demonstrations of alternative processes from 1 p.m.-4 p.m., as well as refreshments.

Artist’s Statement

“I create photographs using some of the methods from the early days of photography: large format cyanotype photograms and months-long exposures made with hand built pinhole cameras. I started working with these processes almost ten years ago partly as a response to the ubiquitous digital photography of the early 21st Century. As nearly half of the world now owns a camera phone, and me being a bit of a history buff, I want to keep these older means of creating photographs relevant while also pushing the extents of the media.

With my background in sequential media, it’s been a natural progression for me to incorporate movement and time into my work. The relatively long exposure time of the cyanotypes (12-15 minutes) allows me to experiment with moving the objects (the shadows of which create the white marks on the blue background) during the exposure. I am testing the limits of the medium and the capability to create multiple exposures within one image. I want the viewer to perceive the movement through a segment of time, shifting away from traditional still photography’s finite depiction of an instant in time, a single frame of now-ness. I want to suggest an alternative view, a non-linear experience, exploring possibilities inside moments where there are numerous options at all points of time.

The pinhole camera images are another way I explore the condensation of time. I leave my pinhole cameras out in the field for up to a year. During that time many things can and do happen. There is the rotation of the earth relative to the sun creating day and night, there’s the tilt of the earth as it revolves around the sun, creating the seasonal shifts, and there’s the way we, people, animals, plants, the climate, respond to it all. In these long exposures there is something we can’t normally see, but understand and expect without question: the sun rises, appears to move across the sky, and sets, every day, no matter what. The thing that’s lost in these images is the movement of everyday life. These little moments of movements aren’t depicted. I choose to see this as reassuring, that no matter what we do, seen or unseen, or even despite what we do or don’t do, we can depend on the fact that the world keeps turning, giving us another day to try it again.

I’m currently experimenting with incorporating movement in my pinhole camera images.”

About Colin Burke

Colin Burke works with antique photographic processes, large format cyanotype photograms and months-long exposures made with hand built pinhole cameras exploring the elasticity of time, plasticity of memory, and the consistent rhythm of nature. He was born on the first day of summer and currently lives and works in New Haven.