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PROCESS

In collaboration with GOWANUS DARKROOM + Photo Lab NYC

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FLUX FACTORY @ GOVERNORS ISLAND NYC - COLONELS ROW HOUSE 404 A

 www.govisland.com/plan-your-visit/ferry

www.fluxfactory.org

Photography is first and foremost a physics-chemists art form if not playground. From the understanding of emulsions’ reactions to light photosensitivity on film to its processing and its printing with all the possibilities the enlarger(s) and developers offer, photography is a scientific craftsmanship.

 

In the semi-darkness of a safelight where all happens, where all visions come to life, where time meets temperature to reveal, each has their own favorite tools, their procedure, their unique ways. This exhibition celebrates photographers who not only have an eye but mostly nurture the skills of the darkroom experience.

 

The Process of it all. 

Featuring MaLo Sutra Fish, Goran Ahlsen, NYC artist Sandra Hamburg and printing master Rafael Cuevas, they each have focused on specific aspects of Governors Island and share with you their reflection on the process. What format, what camera, which chemicals, which paper could best match their artistic vision? 

This exhibition is curated by MaLo Sutra Fish in collaboration with Rachel Jun and Gowanus Darkroom.

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GALLERY HOURS 
Friday to Sunday 
12pm - 6pm

FLUX FACTORY
404A Colonels Row, Governors Island

Special Event
Anthotypes Workshop 
AUGUST 17th 2024 12pm - 6pm
Only 15 tickets! Sign up: eventbrite 

Anthotypes are an ecological alternative to cyanotypes,

which can use roots, spices, petals or chlorophyll + alcohol for the paper formula and borax as the processing agent.
These natural formulas require a much longer exposure time, for some days if not weeks.
We will be experimenting with beets and turmeric as their exposure needs are only from +3 hours.

Meet   The  Artists

Malo Sutra Fish

Malo Sutra Fish

French artist based in Paris and in NYC, she is a member of the collective film lab l’Etna, Paris.

She found an amazing platform in NYC through Flux Factory, but also in Boston at AgX Collective Film Lab. This year, she is temporarily becoming a member of Gowanus Darkroom, notably to up her skills in photography with her mentor Goran Ahlsen, but also for the purpose of this exhibition, which she co-curated with Rachel Jun, founder of Gowanus Darkroom.

Unapologetically enduring her films, exploiting the grain to the max, utilizing light leaks to her advantage, salvaging expired films and papers, she favors photography’s melancholy obsession of nostalgia and moodiness over conventional procedures. More of a visual artist, she juggles a meticulous scientific take on chemistry and physics with a purely instinctive experimental process to render images meant to target memory.

She is the curator and producer of this exhibition.

www.malosutrafish.com 

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Goran Ahlsen

Goran Ahlsen has just retired from being a scientist in biochemistry at Columbia University for the past 18 years. He can now spend all his time diving into photography, which is a practice he started in high school. 

 

From 35mm to medium to large formats, from the processing to the enlarging, but mostly mastering homemade chemical processing, Goran is an unsung master of his craft.

 

Having to leave his cameras on a shelf for most of his time in NYC due to lack of time and a decent lab, he finally dusted of his favorite tools when he discovered Gowanus Darkroom. Avid member and extremely generous with his practice, this is his first exhibition, and most likely not the last.

His work in Biochemistry has been published worldwide.

He is co-producing this show and mentoring Malo Sutra Fish at the Darkroom, where they met.
 

Goran Ahlsen | Columbia University Department of Systems Biology

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Sandra Hamburg

Sandra Hamburg is a NYC based visual artist and member of Gowanus Darkroom.

 

Over the past 30 years, her work has been showed in as many renown galleries and art shows such as The Armory Show, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New Art Dealers Alliance, The Norton Museum of Art, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, The Storefront Gallery, The Knitting Factory Gallery, Gavlak Gallery to name a few, as well as published work in Vogue, The New York Times, The London Times, Harper’s Bazaar.

 

Bound by a fascination with relationality, she creates work that reflects and engages with her environment, softening the lines that divide the self from space and merging individuality with the external world. She combines photography and sculpture to explore the dynamic relationship between action and performance, spectator and object, stasis and motion.

 

Using an analogue 4x5 camera and produces large format prints in the darkroom using her own chemical processing. Her main focus in recent years involves the play of water and light. She is a partner at Photo Lab NYC as well as a member of Gowanus Darkroom.

www.sandrahamburg.com

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Rafael Cuevas

Rafael Cuevas moved to New York City in 1979 in the pursuit of freedom.

Once in New York Rafael found that freedom is a slippery motherfucker who keeps changing the goalpost position. Rafael saw first hand life's worst side, cruelty, abuse and misery during his childhood years at the hand of his father.

After surviving his father’s abuse, Rafael struggled to get a grip on life. Only by chance and a wink of destiny did Rafael find a safe place in a camera store that had recently opened near his house. The store owner welcomed him as a son.

 

Rafael literally abandoned his past life and embraced photography as if his life depended on it, and looking back now, it did. The wounds created by his father have never healed. After years of emotional struggle Rafael has channeled his energy into creating images to relieve the pain and memories of his father.

 

In his process Rafael uses exothermic chemicals of high alkalinity to create deeper and more textural images, or more simply said, images of how Rafael sees the world.

Rafael Cuevas founded Photo Lab NYC in 2019 as a dedicated space for commercial photographers.

www.photolab-nyc.com

Gowanus Darkroom is a community darkroom located in Gowanus Brooklyn, founded by Rachel Jun in 2015. It provides photographers with the facilities needed to produce traditional darkroom photographs based on hourly rentals, monthly membership, and regular classes and workshops offers.  Its goal is to help preserve the art of analog photography and provide an affordable service for students to practice and learn.

Photo Lab NYC

Photo Lab NYC specializes in analog photography, we offer black and white and color printing rooms, film processing and film scanning services, we also offer private and group printing classes. We pride ourselves for the mixing of our chemicals which formulas go as far back as the early twentieth century. Our client roster includes many commercial photographers and artists.

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