The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, together with the Cotuit Center for the Arts, announces the eighth year of their collaborative winter exhibit January / February 2015. The exhibit is titled Opposites Attract, featuring artists’ interpretation of “opposites attract” – literally and figuratively.

In the realm of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1887) is my hero. When I began studying photography—in the days of film—I made a pilgrimage to Lacock Abby in Wiltshire England to visit the Fox Talbot museum. Judging by the number of vials and jars, I didn’t doubt that he “carried out a series of experiments often leading to explosions.” Fox Talbot’s “photographic drawings” were paper negatives from which multiple positive images could be made—the basis for almost all 19^th and 20^th century photography.  A fern leaf was often used as subject matter.

 A simple adjustment click to “invert” in Adobe Photoshop will make light areas appear dark and dark areas appear light. I like the diptych format for this presentation. Viewers study the ferns across a center line to decipher what is positive and what is negative. By washing off some of the transfer ink, there is additional ambiguity. I carried out my series of experiments without toxic chemicals—and without explosions.

See screen shots on my BLOG page.