May 12 – June 18, 2005
Opening reception:
Thursday, May 12, 2005
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
ClampArt is pleased to announce “Behold the Lamb of God,” an exhibition of new mammoth plate albumen prints by renowned photographer, John Dugdale.
Dugdale has received world acclaim over the past fifteen years for his intimate, exquisitely sensitive photographs rendered in a variety of 19th-century printing processes that utilize the sun rather than electric means to transfer image to paper. Beginning as a successful commercial photographer, Dugdale turned solely to personal work after a life-altering stroke in 1993. Surviving a seven-month hospitalization during which he faced a battery of AIDS-related illnesses, a retinal infection ultimately left the artist nearly blind with only fifteen-percent peripheral vision in a single eye. Rather than feeling defeated by such an experience, the artist learned that accepting his impairment opened doorways to vast new opportunities. Dugdale’s images reveal a vision surpassing physical limitations.
For the artist’s newest series, he is shooting 22 x 18-inch mammoth plate negatives which are then contact-printed onto paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals bound by egg-whites. The resultant photographs are extremely rich with luscious purple, brown, and golden hues.
“Behold the Lamb of God” is a group of twelve images that reference passages from the Old and New Testaments. Dugdale has long spoken of the ongoing importance of his spiritual life. Stories of all kinds—biblical, mythological, literary, and autobiographic—have consistently served as sources of inspiration for the artist. These photographs tell of Dugdale’s acceptance of life and its persistent flow of flux and change.
Work by John Dugdale