Eastman Kodak Azo F No. 4, expired February 1922, processed in 2011 (B)
Artist
Alison Rossiter
(American, born 1953)
Date2011
Mediumgelatin silver photogram on expired paper
Dimensionssheet: 8.3 × 14 cm (3 1/4 × 5 1/2 in.)
framed: 24.1 × 29.2 cm (9 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.)
framed: 24.1 × 29.2 cm (9 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineChapin Riley Fund at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Object number2016.47
Label TextFor many photo historians, light exposure is the one constant linking the earliest photographs to the digital images millions of mobile phones capture today. Rossiter’s expired photographs call that fragile connection into question. In the late-aughts, she began purchasing pre-World War II expired photographic paper that she developed in a controlled darkroom setting without light exposure. When fixed, these neglected papers elicit accidental fingerprints, dust, oxidation, mold, and light leaks, which Rossiter refers to as latent imagery.
Eastman Kodak Azo F No. 4 marks a transition in Rossiter’s career. The top half is an example of her found, latent imagery. These light brown cloud-like forms result from mold that has deteriorated the paper. The black band in the lower half of the work reflects a shift in her practice involving the dripping, pooling, and pouring of photosensitive chemicals directly on the paper. Rossiter’s works from this period are often compared to landscapes in aquatint or watercolor. Art in America writer Leah Ollman’s description may be the most poetic, referring to Rossiter’s work as “a kind of visual weather.”On View
Not on view
