Flashpoint

Christopher Myers: Standing on Two Eyes
Opening reception: Thursday, November 29, 6-8pm
@ Flashpoint
916 G Street

While many contemporary photographers embrace and utilize the latest technologies, Christopher Myers reacts against the glut of digital imagery and the ease of “point and shoot” technology. Myers’ work is a conscious return to the traditions and craft of photography that examines the peripheries of a changing cityscape in his native Baltimore, Maryland. Standing on Two Eyes, opening on November 29th at the Gallery at Flashpoint, investigates both the disappearance of established photographic techniques and the vanishing and altering of an urban landscape. Myers alters his photographic negatives and then affixes them to 4 x 5 inch glass plates only to then further manipulate the negatives with additional heat and chemicals. These manipulations imbue the images with an ethereal quality and a fleetingness which mirrors the ephemerality of the landscapes he captures. The images are reflective of the experimental and often chance processes used to create them. Myers chooses to “focus on the disappearing periphery of the city and personal experience – from skeletal buildings to the blurring movement of figures. The small, perhaps insignificant details and what is forgotten or overlooked can be what is truly real.” Standing on Two Eyes is part of the haunting series Peripheral Plates which considers the abandoned margins of gentrification. Like the medium format camera and glass plates that Myers’ uses, the fringes that the artist captures are slowly being absorbed into something more modern. The abandoned sites photographed are now deluxe condominiums and big box stores and the tools of Myers’ work are being replaced by a panoply of digital technology.