Benjamin Timpson

About Face

Timpson walks us through the process of making 16"x20" paper negatives from a hand built 16"x20" View camera. 160 closeup portraits included. Viewers use their smartphones to decode the negatives turning them into positives on their own devices.

Video of Artist Talk
Wednesday, September 23rd

ABOUT FACE

Moving from Daguerreotype to digital in one gesture, this collection of over 300 individual photographic portraits entitled About Face are unaltered and ambitious. Benjamin Timpon’s intent is to evoke a feeling of investigation and observation through the coded information of the negative print.  These negatives are manifestations of truth seeing and are created without manipulation and raw.  Created with a handmade 16×20″ camera Timpson designed, light moves through the lens and spills onto light sensitive photographic paper. The negative prints become a vehicle that unifies the assemblage of faces without regard to ethnicity or race. The more viewers observe these individual portraits, the more they begin to recognize the physicality of the skin and even perhaps the sets of eyes and noses.  About Face utilizes a smartphone to complete the portrait. This intentional requirement directly engages the viewer with the work. Looking becomes an active experience. The phone acts like a photographer’s loupe, a tool for exploring the negative print and decoding the portrait.  The installation of negative prints functions as a collective of presences, each one in dialogue with the other. However, it is not possible to see all the work at once through a smartphone. This is another intentional aspect of the work, one that forces an exploration of each individual alone and separate. It requires the viewer to scan the surface of the print incrementally, like an investigator moving through the woods in the dark of the night, flashlight in hand. The work becomes an opportunity to explore the topography of the human face with the intent of uniting humans through portraiture and allowing the viewer an opportunity to really “see”.

METAMORPHOSIS

There is an enigma surrounding the butterfly; it is fragile, yet strong.  In Metamorphosis, he uses the wings of safe-sourced butterflies to create portraits of Indigenous women who have been murdered, missing, or domestically abused. These women are 2 1/2 more times more likely to be raped or killed than any other women in America. This project brings light to an issue affecting thousands of Native Americans, and pays an homage to women exposed to heinous circumstances.  Timpson states,”I am inspired by nature and feel compelled to tell the story of these women through the symbolic nature of the butterfly wing. The butterfly is a representation of metamorphosis, fragility, and hope. In tribes of the American Southwest, the butterfly is revered and respected. Conceptually, I use the butterfly as a catalyst. It is my hope that this series brings awareness to a very important issue through beauty and change.” Timpson begins the process by researching Native American victims who have been murdered, missing, or domestically abused. He seeks the family members of these victims and give an explanation of the project and intent. The families share photographs with Timpson that he uses as a reference for the portrait. From there, the artist works on a light table to construct a portrait from butterfly wings. Finally, the portrait is encased in a wooden frame and backlit with a light panel to show both the transmitted and reflective light qualities of the piece.