Curator's Pick - Courtney Johnson

Courtney Johnson's dreamy, pink and brown-hued images of the Carolina coast seem to glow with humidity. On view in Analog, selections from Johnson's series Salt depict familiar scenes: the sun rising over the Atlantic,  small waves crashing on the Wrightsville Beach shore, and a calm sea at Bald Head. Courtney explains her process: "Salt is series of salted paper prints using salt water with varying salinity from natural sources. Varying the salinity of the water used in the gelatin salt solution results in a tonal variation of the prints from pinkish gray to sepia shades. The natural salt water is mixed directly with gelatin, rather than diluted to a consistent salinity (typically 2%); therefore, the results vary considerably. One particularly beautiful effect of the unusual hypersalinity in this process is the accumulation of salt on the finished images, which sparkles in the light."

Courtney Johnson specializes in alternative process and experimental photography and is one of the leading scholars on the photographic cliché-verre technique. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions in New York, Miami, San Francisco, Richmond, Colombia, and Germany and is in numerous permanent collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; University of Central Florida; Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale; and FOTOMUSEO, Bogotá. Johnson earned her BFA from New York University and her MFA from the University of Miami. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

This series was generously supported by a Charles L. Cahill Research Award."

Sources: http://www.courtneyjohnson.net/

Elizabeth Harry, Curator, Analog

Images

Left:

Courtney Johnson

Bald Head 10% salinity, 2017

salted paper print with Cape Fear River water

14 x 20 inches

$2200 framed

Right:

Courtney Johnson

Wrightsville Beach 15% salinity, 2017

salted paper print with Atlantic Ocean water

14 x 20 inches

$2200 framed