In November, Viewpoint’s Main Gallery features three photographers – David Ashcraft, Jimmy Fike, and Magnus Stark – who have three very different approaches to making photographic art.
David Ashcraft is a Californian whose work fits comfortably in the tradition of West Coast photography. He studied with many of the iconic West Coast photographers, including John Sexton, Richard Garrod, Alan Ross, and Henry Gilpin. His subject matter centers on the hallowed West Cost themes of the natural landscape, closely observed details, and abstractions.
Jimmy Fike’s exhibit comprises selections from his series, J.W. Fike’s Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of the North American Continent. “Within my system,” Fike explains, “the plant is excavated, arranged in the studio, photographed, then illustrated digitally in such a way as to render the edible parts in color while the remaining parts, less emphatically, read as photograms.
Magnus Stark, who was born in Sweden and resides in Bangor, Maine, makes film-based images without using a camera. “Like a chemist in a lab, I experiment with the raw film by sometimes treating it with a variety of common organic substances, before exposing it to extreme elements. What happens to film if you pop it in the microwave? Submerge it in a hot tub? Stick it in the freezer? And what happens if you do that for an hour, a week, a month or a year?”