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FRAGILE MAGNIFICENCE:
Photography that Celebrates Our EarthWe invite you to explore these four photographic works from Haines: a powerful aerial image from David Maisel, whose solo exhibition Un/Earthed is now on view at the gallery, alongside new offerings from process-based photographers John Chiara, Chris McCaw, and Meghann Riepenhoff. Together, these artists bring us thought-provoking views of the Earth and the heavens, fostering a deeper appreciation for all that sustains us. -
Meghann Riepenhoff
Ice #414 (29-34°F, Mixed Precipitation, Puget Sound, 1.30.23 WA), 2023
Unique Dynamic Cyanotype91 x 88 inches, framed$55,000 - $60,000
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Nature is both subject and collaborator in this cyanotype diptych by Meghann Riepenhoff (b. 1979, lives and works in Bainbridge Island, WA). Placing paper coated in homemade emulsion directly within the landscape, she invites the elements to physically inscribe themselves onto her materials. Informed by temperature and chemical make-up of water, each piece is a wholly unique record of time and place. This exemplary work is drawn from her Ice series, created in freezing bodies of water. The resulting print is full of subtle and strikingly diverse details: colors ranging from deep, inky blues to pale azures; the delicate imprint of ice crystals appearing throughout as crystalline shards and feathery blooms, formed when water freezes across the paper. Ice #414 is an extraordinary blend of dynamism and glacial calm, evoking both the landscape and water in its many states.
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For over thirty years, David Maisel (b. 1961, lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area) has created powerful photographs of sites transformed by human intervention. This striking image from his 1989 series The Mining Project is among Maisel’s first forays into aerial photography, the genre for which he would become well-known. This particular photograph captures Arizona’s Morenci Mine, the largest producer of copper in America. Operating nonstop to produce about 840 million pounds of copper a year, the mine has clearly left its mark on the landscape. In Maisel’s image, its processed ores and tailing ponds foster unearthly hues of blue, green, and purple against a carved terrain. Inconceivably, federal legislation governing mining activity in the United States dates from 150 years ago. The legacy of the 1872 Mining Law, ratified in an era when America sought to develop the West and exploit natural resources without regard to environmental impact, has left this land deeply scarred.
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John Chiara
Coral and Martin Luther King Midway, 2023Camera Obscura Ilfochrome Photograph, Unique56.5 x 47.5 inches, framed -
John Chiara (b. 1971, lives and works in San Francisco, CA) describes his process as “part photography, part sculpture, and part event.” Printing directly onto photographic paper with his hand-built, large-format cameras, Chiara’s landscapes retain the visible vestiges of their creation: uneven hand-cut edges, tape marks, light leaks, subtle chemical streaking. In Chiara's latest works, triple-exposure prints photographed at wooded locations within San Francisco and the nearby Yerba Buena Island, elements of the landscape emerge and recede from these complex, layered compositions. Dense with plantlife, these ethereal images imagine how it may have felt to have experienced the land before it was inhabited.
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Chris McCaw (b. 1971, lives and works in Pacifica, CA) chases the sun to create his elegantly composed landscapes: The powerful lenses within his hand-built cameras act as magnifying glasses, allowing the sun to burn its path across light-sensitive photo paper. His iconic Sunburn images result from a careful choreography between artist and nature, dependent as much on the elements as on McCaw’s understanding of his tools. In this newly created work, McCaw captures the October 14, 2023 annular solar eclipse over the Mojave Desert. As the moon crosses its path, the partially obscured sun appears as a diagonal band of solarized crescents and a “ring of fire” for which the eclipse is named. McCaw’s image is both a documentation of this rare celestial event — the next annular solar eclipse visible in North America takes place in 2046 — as well as a physical record of planetary movement and the passage of time.
