By Quenby Sheree
Now on display at the Southeast Museum of Photography, the “Fluidrive” series spans over six years and is concerned with forms of story-telling.
Curtis Wehrfritz’s daguerreotype images are very much involved with theatrics and are inspired by his primary focus of filmmaking and playwrighting.
“Fluidrive” is something straight out of the dark fairytale I longed to live in as a Gothy overdramatic teenager. The ornate baroque frames — with their massive swirls and designs in shiny black luxury— give the impression that each photograph belongs in an evil queen’s castle.
The photographs themselves are a mirrored image, making the dark subjects appear like holograms that reflect the viewer standing directly in front of the print. Because of the reflective surface of the images, they are best looked at from a few feet away or even at an angle.
Watching gallery visitors sway before the art trying to adjust themselves in the correct way, seems like an unconscious ritualistic dance. Perhaps if the steps are done correctly the image will present itself.
Wehrfritz is a photographer, filmmaker and cinematographer based in Toronto, Canada. His education, experience and career have been principally in the world of video and cinema with a number of awards, including a Canadian JUNO award (equivalent to a Grammy) for his video work with Leonard Cohen. Other video awards such as two Best Director honors at MuchMusic and eight other distinctions for music videos. Wehrfritz’s feature film “Four Days” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was distributed internationally. His short films have been shown in the NYC Independent Film Festival and in film festivals in the United Kingdom.
In recent years, Wehrfritz has moved into visual art, live performance and theatrical installations. The daguerreotype work at SMP started as a form of unique documentation for such performances.
Daguerreotypes aren’t the latest futuristic gimmick in photography, but date back to the beginnings of the craft. The method, named after Louis Daguerre, who developed the process along with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in the early 1800s, is a direct positive image made in a large format camera onto a silvered copper plate.
There is no negative and no post production method to fix even the slightest flaw. Each print is one of a kind and terribly fragile. Making these images is such a rare skill that there are very few working daguerreotype labs in the world.
What kind of artist steps away from his award winning film career in film to take on one of the most difficult printing techniques in history? The Canadian-born artists own words gives insight to his state of mind. In his artist’s statement he says:
“There is a blind spot that I keep trying to describe. It lies behind the eye and I can never really describe it in words. Imagine feeling your way around a strange house in the dead of night when you know someone is there with a cat that is motionless and watching you. My photo-based work seeks to create touchstones to an inner story. Through this I have become fascinated by the idea that image making mimics the mechanics of the eyes. We use light to create elaborate puppet shows to be able to make simulated experiences of light.”
If you get the feeling that the scenes trapped onto the shinning plates are moments in a Gothic play or horror movie, it’s because Wehrfritz’s daguerreotype work began as a way to uniquely record his stage and film projects. His initiation into the early days of photography began during a three-year apprenticeship with Mike Robinson, a Canadian glass artist and poet.
“Fluidrive” can be seen in the upstairs gallery of SMP until April 22. The artist is expected to visit Daytona State College Friday, March 30 for a lecture and reception at the museum. The museum is open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 11:00 am- 5:00pm; Wednesday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm; Saturday & Sunday: 1:00 – 5:00 pm. The museum information hotline is (386) 506-447.