Chris Dahlquist

Artist Statement
My photographs are works of fiction based on true stories – a distillation of collective memories and inner dialogues – islands of solitude with fewer fireworks but more daydreams.
I work at the nexus of analog processes and digital technology, employing unconventional materials to expand the story the photographs tell. I utilize layers, textures, shadows, and viewing angles to elevate photographs from static images to transformative objects and the audience’s encounter from visual to experiential. Each photographic object is singular; the materials, handwork, and image combine to form an original object that lives outside the world of reproduction.

Description of work
Measuring Abundance is an ongoing series of photographs that draws on language and constructs used in ecology to explore how we place value on land, solitude, and silence. The images selected for the exhibition are taken anywhere from the Great Plains to the Gulf of Thailand, and chosen to magnify the commonality of quietude and spaciousness. Multiple layers of original photographs printed on semi-transparent polyester acetate and rag paper, and both digital and hand-drawn marks, are combined to question the meaning of abundance and the value (or lack thereof) we place on ecoregions where humans are not the primary inhabitant.