Images from the series A Forest Reconstructed.
Tuesday, April 10th 7:00PM
PUBLIC PROGRAM
Special lecture with Artist WITHO WORMS
The landscapes I have photographed over the past years cannot be unambiguously regarded as natural or cultural landscapes. In the same way, it is not clear in this work what the most appropriate representation of reality is: a drawing, a negative or a print. Although the photographic image has remained my starting point in this work, I question the self-evident connection with the natural reality that it has taken on in our consciousness. –Witho Worms.
The more recent series by Witho Worms, A Forest Reconstructed, presents the cross-sectioned patterns of reforestation. Planted for commercial purposes to produce paper and lumber, trees grow in arrangements that are neither randomly organic nor solely artificial. Concerned with how to appropriately represent this stratified reality Worms resolves, quite literally, to make an impression of these vertical rhythmic lines by printing in white on a white support. Contact prints of titanium powder on single weight baryta paper pose the question as to what is seen and what is imagined. –L. Parker Stephenson.
*This event has ended.
Saturday, 10-am-5pm: April 14th, 2018.
CLASS | Demonstration*
Special Class|Demonstration with Artist WITHO WORMS
In this one day class/demonstration, Artist Whito Worms will share the steps and techniques of his carbon printing process.
Carbon prints use a gelatin layer (called a tissue) coated with light sensitive carbon pigment. The tissue is exposed to a negative. The image is formed by washing away portions of the pigment. This printing process could use any pigment, and carbon black was one of the first to be used. The prints can be any color, usually appearing blue-brown, similar to the albumen prints of the time. These prints are also usually richer and more intense than albumen prints. They were more popular in Europe than in America, and were often used to reproduce artworks, and for book illustrations (source: Library of Congress).
* This registration Includes the Public Program.
Have questions? Please contact molly@penumbrafoundation.org, or call 917-288-0343
Images from the series A Forest Reconstructed
Witho Worms is a Dutch artist-photographer. He has a Master’s degree in Anthropology (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam) and studied Audiovisual Design and Photography (Academy for the Arts, Utrecht, Netherlands). His background in visual anthropology has led him into an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium and its claim to natural representation and factuality. His special interest is in landscapes. To be more precise, he finds his subjects where the distinction between a natural and cultural environment becomes hazy. After photographing the Dutch polders* he shifted his attention to the slag heaps from the coal mining industries in Western Europe in 2006. In 2013, he started to work on forests in Finland, Sweden, France and Belgium. He spent weeks in forests that are grown for timber, paper and other purposes. The project is made of 3 parts. The last part was finished in the spring of 2016.
His publication “La montagne c’est moi” obtained The Best Dutch Book Design 2012 and was short-listed for the Paris Photo-Aperture first Photo Book Award. He won the Gold Medal 2013 for “The most beautiful book of the world”: Stiftung Buchkunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Witho Worms' latest work is now on view at L.Parker Stephenson Photographs.
*A piece of low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or a river and protected by dikes, especially in the Netherlands.
Any changes to the program will be announced online.
All lectures and other events are held at Penumbra Foundation at 7pm.
36 E. 30th St. New York, NY, 10016 (between Madison Ave. & Park Ave. South
(917) 288-0343 | info@penumbrafoundation.org | penumbrafoundation.org