November 19 - January 9, 2022
From the Houston Center for Photography:
AARON TURNER, BLACK ALCHEMY. “Alchemy is often associated with the ancient science and philosophy that, among other things, aimed to achieve the transmutation of base metals into gold and an elixir for immortality. Photography performs its own kind of alchemy, transforming light and metals into an image and, in doing so, fixing a moment in time forever. Aaron Turner’s series Black Alchemy relishes in the magic of the medium—the chemical and physical metamorphoses that occur when processing film and creating prints in the darkroom. It also explores the radical potential of the medium to move between representation and abstraction, and the past and the present. Through projected images and layers of cut paper, Turner’s pictures allow viewers to travel in time, combining archival images of black historical figures, such as Martin Luther King, Marvin Gaye, Frederick Douglas and others. Yet, Turner’s series also challenges viewers to move beyond any easy narrative around history, representation, and identity. Turner shifts the emphasis away from the Black subject to the material, historical, and poetic qualities of blackness in all of its manifestations, from historical figures to black-and-white photography itself.” – Drew Sawyer
Reception: November 19, 2021 | 5:30–8 pm
Houston Center for Photography
1441 West Alabama Street
Houston, 77006 TX
(713) 529-4755
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