Digital Art Exhibit Looks at Photography's Future
KEENE, N.H. 10/21/02 - What is the future of photography in the computerized, digital world of the 21st century? How is photography as an art form being transformed by computer manipulation of digital images?
Get a glimpse into photographys genre-bending future in the exhibition Digital Frontiers: Photographys Future at Nash Editions on display Nov. 2 to Dec. 8 at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College. KSC art professor Peter Roos guides a tour of the exhibition at 6:15 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, during the opening reception, which runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
To complement Digital Frontiers, Roos organized an exhibit of photographs by Katrin Eismann to be displayed Nov. 2-30, except for Nov. 15 and 16, in the lobby of the Redfern Arts Center.
Nash Editions was founded in 1991 by musician Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash, who is also a photographer, and Mac Holbert, a fellow pioneer in the digital print realm. Based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Nash Editions was the first studio to specialize exclusively in digital fine-art printmaking. It quickly became a scene for photographers exploring digital technology - computers, digital software, scanners, and printers - and how to use this technology to transform photography and printmaking.
Nash is one of 16 photographers featured in Digital Frontiers, which was organized by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. All exhibit photographs are printed as digital ink-jet prints, also known as Iris prints after the trade name of the ink-jet printer used at Nash Editions.
At Nash Editions, the computer is just another tool. The artist brings the vision, Nash said in an article in a Rochester, N.Y., newspaper when Digital Frontiers opened in 1998 at the Eastman House. What we want to do is extend the artists vision. We want them to see all the possibilities and go out thinking in different ways than when they came in.
The photographers featured in Digital Frontiers are among the first to experiment with ink-jet printing, and many are among the generation of photographers, who, in the 1970s, were the first to take up the reproduction technologies born of mass media. Photography has always been intertwined with printmaking because both are media of multiple reproduction as well as cultural systems of mass communication.
In addition to Digital Frontiers, the Thorne Gallery also is showing the 2002 Biennial Regional Jurors Choice Exhibition, which features works by artists living within 30 miles of Keene and Friends of the Thorne. Free guided gallery tours through both exhibits are offered at 2 p.m. every Sunday by KSC art student intern Charles Langille. Reservations are not required for the tour.
The gallery is open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday through Wednesday, and noon to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The gallery will be closed Nov. 11 for Veterans Day and Nov. 27-Dec. 1 for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The exhibits, reception, and tours are free and open to the public. For information, call 603-358-2720, or visit www.keene.edu/tsag.
