PAST EXHIBITION

Mountains Without Faces

Brea Souders

Mountains Without Faces, a solo exhibition by 2013 CCNY Darkroom Resident Brea Souders, explores the nature of memory by re-contextualizing and combining different photographic materials. This exhibition marks the third of four solo exhibitions from the recipients of the 2013 CCNY Darkroom Residency Program.

The images in Mountains Without Faces are made by layering and shaping cut negatives and positives from my film archive over simple white ground. As the formation of overlapping slices grows, the clarity of images within the negatives becomes obscured. The layering of colors darkens as it builds. Light bouncing off the darkest surfaces provides some highlight and dimension, but rarely reveals a discernible image. With these elements in place, I ply the amorphous pile, coaxing it into various abstract shapes. With each pass new pieces are revealed, while others become buried. – Brea Souders 

This work is joined by the related project, Single Cuts. While its own series, the cuts also represent a portion of the building material of Mountains Without Faces. They provide a closer look at the imagery contained within the transparencies, without the obscuring company of one another. But their irregular shapes alter the original intent of their source photographs. They are partial views torn from fully realized images. Stories half told, or less.