Charming Voltage Electrophotographic Works By Kerry Laitala:

This body of work resides at the direct intersection between science and superstition, belief and manifestation. The materials range from vintage letter-press blocks to Mexican “Milagros” that are often left at churches and other places of worship. These objects, in the shape of hearts, legs, and kneeling forms, become talismans that help people with ailments, and desires that need to be met. A milagro representing an ailing heart might be left at a shrine to mend an aching heart. The work also takes into consideration Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. I am interested in the way that “Objecthood”, and the aura of “Objecthood” has a market-place significance as opposed to time-based works that I have made over the past 25 years that have at their core an exploration of ephemeral experience. Similar to past works I have made with moving image, these photographs explore the projection of meaning onto inanimate objects. I am interested in the ways that the phenomenology of the process imprints a shimmery image made without a camera. The film is exposed by the build-up of ions that create a corona discharge on the surface of conductive objects. I take 4x5” format film, and using a generator of electricity, charge the atmosphere around these objects with ions that cause the film to be exposed.

I have made photograms, or as I call them Cinegrams making images directly onto photo sensitive film in the past using a flashlight to expose the film. The shadowgraphic trace of objects are left on the emulsion of the film. For this body of work the light that is generated comes directly from electricity and it is the corona discharge that creates the photographic impression.

I studied film and photography at Massachusetts College of Art and obtained my masters degree at SFAI in 1997. My website is: www.kerrylaitala.net