Vessel (No. 2)
Susan Derges British
Not on view
Reminiscent of William Henry Fox Talbot's earliest experiments with photography, which were cameraless images made by laying a botanical specimen on photosensitized paper; this work records scientific fact with a delicate accuracy. Derges placed her jam jar of spawn, tadpoles, and then frogs in her enlarger and printed directly through it, making an exposure any day she noted significant change or growth. The temporal frame of the work was dictated by the maturation of her subjects, who finally jumped out of the photograph and into the world.