Chris McCaw

McCaw creates one of a kind long exposures of the sun using vintage fiber based gelatin silver black & white photographic paper. The focused light of the sun literally burns a path through the paper essentially cooking inside the camera in a way that changes the physical properties of the paper leaving oranges, reds, silvers, and blacks across the image. The sun is an extremely active participant and subject of the final image.
McCaw's work is very nostalgic feeling, simply based on the out of date medium he is using and how he is using it. He is not able to recreate these prints in any way; the product, the negative image at the end is a completely unique print. When I look at McCaw's images they have a very calming affect that I believe come from knowing the degree of patience that they required; each photograph can take 8+ hours to expose. His images are very painterly in the way the colors feel fluid in the way that they melt into one another, and the sun's streaks or pinholes in the image, to me, remind of the energy and controlled chaos similar to illustrations of Lanfranco Quadrio.

This last image is Lanfranco Quadrio's illustration that I felt strangely similar to some of the energy spots in McCaw's work.