Heiberg Cummings, in collaboration with Turid Meeker Contemporary Art, is pleased to presents Cathrine Wessel's The Polaroid Process at their new location. That singular object, the Polaroid photograph used to function on many levels, before digital came along and rendered it extinct. It served to make an instant record of many fleeting things, both public and private.
Cathrine Wessel’s new exhibit of fine art prints and the Polaroids that inspired and shaped them, is an homage to that instant method and a vivid clarification of this photographic artist’s working method. Wessel suggests that viewers allow the Polaroids to guide them through this exhibit, as a red thread might guide you through a forest.
All the photographs on display were shot on negative film, allowing for that element of chance that digital has eliminated; a certain stance, a sly glance unnoticed until the film developed in the tray and was then carefully scrutinized by its maker. “I am still drawn to the world of the negative,” says Wessel, “photography for me is finding a true moment, and I love the surprise when I sit down in my studio with a loupe and begin to discover what I’ve caught.”
A successful Polaroid usually stems from the photographer’s instinct and intuition, rather than any specific technical prowess. Wessel used Polaroids as building blocks that helped create the final image. These quick takes can function as sketches, as an artist’s maquette, a preliminary model before the final form is decided upon; in some cases, the Polaroid catches the exact image the artist is looking for, the moment that can’t be duplicated, only approximated on film. “The Polaroid itself is ‘touched’, not retouched. It is an original, a tactile object, one of a kind, and unique in the ways that it ages and changes with time.”
Even though her subject matter varies widely, from fashion stories to documentary, sport, travel, and portraiture, the technique of capture remains constant. The interplay between first idea and final artifact creates a fascinating and revealing exhibit of this artist’s particular process.
Wessel has exhibited her work over a period of many years. She had one-person exhibitions at Nordic Light, Norway, 2007, and in New York at Alpana Bawa, in 2001. The artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions, and her work is represented in private collections internationally. The artist has participated in numerous group exhibitions, and her work is represented in private collection internationally.
She has worked extensively in sports, travel, fashion, and lifestyle photography, for editorial clients such as Conde Nast Traveler, Glamour, Marie Claire, Elle and Self Magazines, and with numerous advertising clients, including Nautica, Speedo and J. Crew. Cathrine Wessel was born in Norway and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.