Preview
GALACTIC CAROUSEL
Dianne Bos
Runs until February 7
Truck (815 First St. S.W.)
An entire world, in fact the universe, opened up to Dianne Bos in 1978 when she discovered pinhole photography while completing her bachelor of fine arts degree at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.
Now the Calgary-based photographer brings her discoveries to the Truck gallery in an exhibition entitled Galactic Carousel.
"I really hated photography," says Bos in her usual direct fashion. "Then I saw someone making a pinhole camera at university and I became completely possessed."
That fortuitous event led Bos, who had been majoring in sculpture, to change directions and follow a path that has seen her meandering across the world making pinhole photographs for the past 20 years. Using a simple box with a pinhole poked through the front of it and some film placed inside, Bos creates images that have been exhibited in galleries across Canada and internationally.
In many ways, Bos is a photographer’s photographer. Not seduced by the latest camera equipment or image-altering software, she instead concentrates her creative skills on the most fundamental elements of the photographic process.
"Pinhole photography is about understanding light at such a basic level," she says.
A manifestation of the photographer’s fascination with light and one of the most compelling photographs in this exhibition is Carousel – Carcassonne, France. The amusement ride takes on an otherworldly elegance as a result of the long exposure of Bos’s pinhole camera. This is not photography measured in 1/500th of a second, but rather the kind of imagery that’s created when a talented photographer stands back and watches a captivating scene being bathed in light.
Contributing another layer of experience to viewing this photograph is a soundtrack that plays in the gallery. Bos recorded it at the same time as she made the image. By playing the ambient sounds that were recorded in that park, Bos transports the viewer back to a fleeting moment in time. Two boys can be overheard playing and a motorcyclist speeds by, all while the carousel spins on its axis unaffected by the nearby activity. We are intrigued by this wonderful moment, but also reminded of our insignificance in the larger spheres of time and space.
And if all of this seems like the visual machinations of a philosopher, then you’re right. Bos uses the carousel metaphor to explore our place in the universe, taking it one step further by introducing photographs that depict a series of galactic images. This is achieved by taking the photograph through a galaxy pattern that Bos creates on a large sheet of zinc.
"It’s essentially a multi-aperture camera," she says of the technique.
The images that emerge when those photographs are developed in the darkroom range from things of beauty to ones of pure whimsy – sometimes both in the same print. One example is the print E=mc2 Whirlpool Galaxy M51, which is a photograph made up of hundreds of copies of Albert Einstein’s famous equation taken with the modified pinhole camera. Not only is the print a lovely representation of the galaxy Charles Messier discovered in 1773, but it also underscores the keen sense of humour of Bos, who spends much of her time studying the stars.
Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." In the case of Bos, imagination and knowledge come together in an exhibition of photographic poems that focus on light, space and humanity. |
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