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Under Study (2010-15)
The photograms in Under Study represent the genesis of the Paper Light project, employing botanical specimens to defy the transience of nature. While teaching in Cortona, Italy in 2010, Smigrod gathered unusual leaves at the Giardino dei Semplici in Florence for the purpose of making photograms. She then turned a darkroom mishap with chemicals from failure to felicitous discovery. The result was a body of spectral images formed by happenstance and serendipity. Subsequently working with equally oversized samplings from the US Botanical Garden in Washington, DC and neighborhood yards, Smigrod launched her newly embraced alchemic approach to the photographic medium. Her interest in botanical specimens is not typological but rather invested in the creative potential such forms present for transformative outcomes through inventive photographic practices. |