Chris McCaw

Sunburned #446 (Sierra)

Though abstract, Kelton’s works are representative, often simulating seascapes or other-worldly environments. At the same time, they are evocative of other medias such as watercolors...

In past, many people who made cameraless photographs made them inside the controlled atmosphere of the darkroom. For the last 20 years, my cameraless pictures have been made directly...

In past, many people who made cameraless photographs made them inside the controlled atmosphere of the darkroom. For the last 20 years, my cameraless pictures have been made directly...

We look to (and at) images to find information: practical, aesthetic, erotic, and points between or overlapping. We are often seduced; we believe the photograph’s illusory diorama of...

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...

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...

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.