COLOR FIELDS
Cameraless captures of light cast directly onto light-sensitive paper.
The Color Fields continue my investigation into the nature of photography by removing the camera, subject, and image file entirely, leaving light as the sole generative force.
These cameraless photographs are created in complete darkness by placing colored lights and gels directly onto chromogenic paper, which is then briefly exposed and processed in traditional RA-4 chemistry. Like conventional color printing, this is a negative process: the hues embedded in the paper are the opposites of the light cast onto it (red becomes cyan, blue appears as yellow). What remains is the paper’s direct record of light as it is materially perceived.
Each Color Field is a one-off object. There is no reproducible source—only a single sheet of paper bearing the cumulative effects of color, shadow, and timing. This irreproducibility offers a deliberate counterpoint to the endless reproducibility of digital images and situates the work within photography’s earliest manifestations, even as it challenges those conventions.
Working without reference to the external world draws my attention toward spaces that resist representation. The images unfold as fields rather than pictures—sites where color emerges from darkness and where depth is suggested through overlap, opacity, and the subtle residue of gesture.
In this sense, the work aligns with my broader interest in images that invite contemplation rather than explanation. The Color Fields ask what photography becomes when it records the quiet, physical encounter between light
and surface.