No Alternatives:Hand-Crafted Photo Exhibition

Friday, October 21, 2011 artists, collectors, and the usual suspects gathered to see the unveiling of the No Alternatives exhibition at Through This Lens gallery. This is the first exhibition at Through This Lens to be selected by jury - in this case by Sam Wang and Christina Z. Anderson. Both Sam and Christina are noted authorities, and practitioners, in the hand-made photography world. In fact, they both also teach processes and techniques which are often referred to as "Alt" - but exactly why No Alternatives was chosen for the exhibition title is best expressed by Kevin Logghe. Kevin came up with the idea for the show more than a year ago. For more about that please see his web site http://www.fotosavant.com. There were entries artists from around the US and several other countries. The processes include, among others, cyanotype, platinum-palladium, carbon transfer, mordancage and gum bichromate. These processes are often based on antique processes, but some are experimental. All the subject matter is contemporary - which ultimately is the point of this exhibition. Given that many of the prints on display took days to create, and are each one unique, proof in on the walls that craft and hand-work has not been fully replaced by the computer.