Walter Hugo: 'A Moment In An Instant World'

About

Entirely self-taught, Hugo's 'A Moment In An Instant World' is the culmination of Hugo's focus and deep exploration of obscure photographic systems. His studies have enabled technical feats that stand in stark contrast; as an antidote to the contemporary age of the instant, mass produced, and throwaway photography. On display will be three of Hugo's series that include his use of 19th century ambrotype photography as well as his self-invented process that exposes images directly onto walls and floors. These works highlight the deceptive nature of photography — a medium that claims to capture truth but instead alters that which is captured. Never knowing the image until its been developed, the precarious nature of Hugo's techniques produces a clash between control and chance that create artworks that linger in ambiguity. The idealistic beauty that the youngest generations have been exposed to is challenged by Hugo's method. Comparable to a Polaroid picture, capturing a distinctly 'perfect' image is almost impossible with the ambrotype. 'A Moment In An Instant World' is Hugo's latest body of work and draws attention to the opportunity to find beauty within this chance. The photographic medium creates a lot of surprises, rarely describing the world accurately, as one expects it to. Instead, photography transcends this expectation morphing our perceptions into something illusive, completely changing what it is describing. The art of photography is to control this transformation.