This collection of images represents Kelley Hersey’s ongoing exploration of and fascination with the magic of reflected light falling on shards of broken glass. Her arrangements are composed by intentionally manipulating various light sources to achieve an intensified result. She has been committed to pursuing this project through many iterations – a seemingly simple subject matter that paradoxically reveals unanticipated and uniquely exciting creative possibilities. This exploration began with an accident when developing a traditional photographic print in the darkroom a piece of framing glass fell onto the cracked concrete floor. Under the dim red of the safelight, she saw an astonishing compilation of dark and light planes illuminated by glowing red edges that coalesced into a unified whole: something she’d never seen or imagined. Hersey noticed that instead of demanding a broom, the accident called for a camera. She recognized that something unknown and unseen was infinitely more interesting and afforded an unpredictable pathway toward composition and expression. That accidental image is followed by a search for other opportune conditions and reflective surfaces that might yield similar results when seen not by the eye but through the optics of a camera.
Hersey soon ventured into the natural environment and found that glass surfaces placed and arranged in water yielded additional nuances of reflection and composition. Working with seawater on the rocky shores north of Boston and coastal Maine was rife with possibilities. After moving to the Upper Valley, she found inspiration in New England streams; the combination and variations in reflective ice, glass, and moving water added intrigue and complexity to this subject’s initial allure.
Several images in this exhibition were composed using a traditional 4×5 camera, exposing black-and-white film under artificial light at night and processing the resulting large-format images inside a darkroom. Other sets were achieved using single exposures with minimal to no cropping. Today Hersey records her images digitally, although they remain unmanipulated save for color inversions or global color enhancement.
Kelley Hersey will give a talk about her process and practice on Friday, February 9, 5:30-6:30.
Kelley Hersey | Bio
Kelley Hersey spent many earlier years creating marketing graphics, designing original typography, and designing educational books. She taught numerous visual art and design courses, including digital and traditional photography, typography, artist books, and the history of design. She taught at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Boston University, and Northern Vermont University at Lyndon. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan and a Master of Fine Arts from Boston University. She lives in Norwich, Vermont, and shares a working art and design studio with her husband and son.
Generously Sponsored by:
