FROM THE SERIES SUNBURN The sun burned this hole in the photographic negative. Thats how Chris McCaw makes his landscapes visceral.
  • Courtesy of the artist and Photo Center NW
  • FROM THE SERIES SUNBURN The sun burned this hole in the photographic negative. That's how Chris McCaw makes his landscapes visceral.

Process, the current group exhibition at the Photo Center NW in commemoration of the 175th year since the announcement of the daguerrotype, is a series of experiments in different ways to make pictures. They can be cameraless. They can be burned on and through by the sun. They can be exceedingly temporary, like Phil Chang's piece will be when it's unveiled tonight before an audience, with readings by authors Rebecca Brown, Rebecca Bridge, and Adam Boehmer. Until tonight's event, Chang's piece, framed on the gallery wall, has been covered over with black plastic taped down. The wall label says:

His unfixed gelatin silver print photograms go directly from the darkroom easel into a safelight box and then a gallery frame clothed with a black cover, and do not see the light of day until the image is on exhibit.

It takes a little while for the image to become as sharp and bright as it is going to get, and then it takes another little while—a few hours in all—for it to disappear.

Say hello and goodbye to Chang's photograph tonight.