radiant flux 2012
radiant flux = The measure of the total power of electromagnetic radiation landing on a particular surface.
A star passes through our atmosphere in a violent rush. The light pierces through every conceivable crevice to reach the lens. Dark silhouettes of trees and man made structures create a sliding foreground. The sighting feels foreign, invasive, dangerous.
I can’t look away.
This work portrays the sun and its rays traveling through the forest. The constant variation of density hides and reveals the star. This creates a pulse pattern that produces a rhythm. The rhythm seems to coincide with the sound of the wind and the movement. All the fundamental elements of the photographic medium are present, the light source, aperture, shutter and lens.
The glass surface of the lens is evident in the rainbow halo created when in full exposure to the sun. This resulting over exposure creates a blinding flash that dissipates as fast as it arrives. This may call on the viewer to be removed from within the scene and to realize that there is a photographic device recording it.
The work is the latest in a series of exploration into the photographic medium. The apparent simplicity hides many complex repetitions. The forest canopy mimics the photographic shutter and aperture. Lens-flares and glass-coating halos reflect actual aperture and shutter mechanisms within the recording device. Sound fluctuates as if in cue with the pulsing light, and so on. The photographic camera is a radiant flux device. It times a specific amount electromagnetic radiation on to a specific surface. To humans, sun’s light is the source off all sources. That is to say, the cause of all causes.
God…
…radiant flux.
