Parra & Romero is pleased to present its first exhibition with artist Liz Deschenes, one of the main referents of contemporary experimental photography. Deschenes has been challenging the concept of what we understand as photographic with more than three decades of continuous work, and through her camera-less photography, the artist develops pieces created from chemical as well as digital processes, the constant exploration of new materials and a critical research of the evolution of the medium. In this opportunity, she will exhibit new works from three different series that continue to reflect on the role of photography and, even more broadly, on the devices that have conditioned our way of seeing over the centuries.
Many of her Photograms reference work of Etienne Jules Marey, one of the inventors of an apparatus ́s that preceded the invention of motion picture; and in the works FPS -acronym for frames per second-, the vertical pieces mounted on the wall appear in space in constant intervals, just as frames would behave in film. But here, it is the viewer who is in motion. All these works, with their reflective and matt surfaces -which Deschenes achieves by exposing photosensitive paper to the environment at night and by working with black and white chemicals- not only partially reflect their surroundings, but also change over time through natural oxidation and the light to which they are exposed. Subtle metaphor of the change that we, the reflected, also experience; explicit bluntness of the fact that time can never be stopped, not even in a photograph.
For if a photograph ultimately shows one way of capturing reality, research into these ways or methods has recently led Deschenes to explore new horizons. To do this, the artist once again looked back to the past, to inquire into what was believed to be fixed or stable, and the result Is UV Prints printed onto Corning Gorilla Glass. The pieces are composed of ultra-thin and resistant glass used in the screens of electronic devices; and the UV- printed monochromes to which Deschenes utilizes them is a nod to the filters attributed to Claude Lorrain. The baroque painter was believed to have used them to “filter” landscape light to achieve the uniform atmospheres seen in his paintings, and while there is no actual evidence of Lorrain’s use of them, it is known that these filters were widespread among 17th century landscape painters. Considering that the Gorilla Glasses are works of a present- time that finds it increasingly difficult to separate the photographic medium from the use of filters to accommodate reality to its standards, there are two important reflections that Deschenes reminds us of: that adapting reality to our tastes through optical devices is far from being a contemporary practice; and that precisely because of this, seeking the truth in a representation -whether pictorial or photographic- will always be a failed enterprise before it begins.
The question that remains, then, is what is the most genuine thing a photo can offer us? Liz Deschenes’ work is framed in that search, and if her work is captivating, it is precisely because of her constant search for authenticity in a medium that has many tools (and also captions) that can be deceptive. What remains, if not, when you take away -almost- everything from photography? Nothing more and nothing less than its exposed and printed materials and substrates- is a raw and direct work, where we understand that one of the most important aspects of the photographic reflection was always on the other side, on the side of the one who views and considers the picture.
Liz Deschenes (Boston, 1966) lives and works in New York, and has been exhibiting for more than 30 years. She is currently participating in “Nineteenth-Century Photography Now” at the Getty Center in Los Angeles (2024). Her work is part of numerous world-renowned permanent public collections such as MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art), New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Le Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Art Institute of Chicago; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; among many others.
