Blue 4
(2000)
from the Penumbra (where shadow becomes light) series 2000
Medium
type C photograph
Measurements
76.2 × 102.0 cm (image and sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds arranged by Loti Smorgon for Contemporary Australian Photography, 2000
© Penelope Davis
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Penelope Davis is one of a number of contemporary Australian photographers who have explored the earliest methods of making photographs from the nineteenth century, including the photogram. This refers to a camera-less photograph, made in the darkroom by placing an object on a light-sensitive surface. When exposed and processed, this creates an image that is essentially a shadow of the object itself. Davis has used translucent silicone castings of a camera to create these photograms: the resulting jewel-like coloured images are mysterious scenes of the ‘hovering’ cameras. Davis is challenging ideas around photography, where the camera is seen as the subject, not the recorder, of images.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
2000.243
Department
Australian Photography
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest