The Contemporary Print Series - Francis Schanberger

Zenith #1

2017
Gelatin silver print
Edition of 50 from the Portfolio Dayton Visual Art Center (DVAC) CSA 2017

ABOUT THE WORK
“I have been documenting the impact of an insect on Ohio’s ash tree population by strapping a pinhole camera onto the bark of affected trees. Occasionally the camera would fall off during the exposure creating a photograph of where it landed. This has led to a new direction where I embrace my accident-prone nature and stage photographs as if the camera had fallen face up on the ground. It’s a view of a sky, the zenith directly above me and everything close by, and heaven and earth are photographically tied together. 

The work is printed in the darkroom on paper from the1990’s which has a color and texture that are unlike anything available for inkjet printing. It is also a nostalgic trip for me to know that I can work the same way I did when I first fell in love with photography. Paper that should be ruined from age can still contribute to the medium in the digital era.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
One of nine children, Francis has been photographing since fourth grade when he presented a homemade, long focal length pinhole camera as his science project. An early part of his photographic career was spent working as a laboratory assistant at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine where, after hours, he would make cyanotype photograms in the laboratory using equipment and supplies that were close at hand. Since receiving his MFA from the Ohio State University in 2002, his work has been characterized by an interest in historical photographic processes and staged self-portraiture. He was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council in 2002, 2009, and in 2013 as well as a Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District Fellowship in 2008. In 2011, he was commissioned by the Ohio Arts Council to create seven awards using the Van Dyke Brown process for the annual Governor’s Awards for the Arts. He has exhibited at Soho Photo in New York, the Houston Center for Photography, the Free University of Brussels, as well as the Museet for Fotokunst in Odensee, Denmark.