Carol Panaro-Smith and James Hajicek

A Decade of Alchemy

September 7 - November 1, 2012

Over the last decade we have been working collaboratively using the process known as photogenic drawing – one of photography’s earliest and most beautiful. It is also one of the most simple and direct processes that defines the very core of photography without recourse to the normally thought of requisite equipment and materials. This work has been as much an exploration of our personal relationship as it has been an investigation into photography’s sacred beginnings.

We began by digging plants from the earth or collecting life from the sea and exposing them in contact with hand-coated light sensitive paper. This organic material withered under the intense heat and light of the Arizona sun as it completed its final act of participation in the creation of its own image.

As we continued to work with variations of William Henry Fox Talbot’s basic chemical formulas, we discovered that altering the variables of the light sensitive solutions, the chemistry in the paper, the intensity and accompanying heat of the light, and the chemicals emerging from the organic material, a color palette and physical presence emerged in the final print creating an ‘organic artifact’ beyond the imagination of anything previously thought of as photographic.

We also continued this exploration using traditional film negatives and gelatin silver paper with surface manipulations of hand-applied pigmentation looking more closely at the individual components we had been using in the earlier work.

The series Arc of Departure is the beginning of the end of this body of work and has evolved in stages from its initial intellectual underpinnings through a focus on the physicality of the remaining organic artifact to the spirituality of experiencing “the awe” of being in the immediate presence of this sacred transformative act - magic in its very essence, ruled by serendipity, elusive mysteries, fugitive images, and the ruling master of all – the ultimate impermanence of everything.

In the early years, we were immersed in the simplicity of the experience. As our relationship grew and became more grounded, the images began to mirror both verbal and nonverbal conversations about art and life. In order to get to a place where we could begin to understand the true nature of this work, we knew that eventually we would need to distance ourselves from this garden in which we found ourselves.

Figures entered the work to perhaps lead us to a place where the intellect will be once again engaged and the source of accompanying light may have the distance required for true illumination.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: Carol Panaro-Smith received her MFA at Arizona State University. Her area of specialization is alternative photographic processes, mixed media and book arts. She has held a number of positions both as an art instructor and administrator throughout the valley for over 30 years. Some highlights in her career include establishing Alchemy Studio, a working and teaching studio in Phoenix and her tenure as a founding member of the art school, Metro Arts. Her own work along with collaborative work with partner James Hajicek has been internationally recognized and collected. She is presently the program director and curator at Art Intersection.

James Hajicek is a Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University where he taught fine art photography for 34 years. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the University of New Mexico. His area of specialization is late 19th century photographic printing processes. His work has been exhibited internationally over the last thirty years and can be found in many significant public collections including the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France. He has received several National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for his own photography and his work with obscure photographic printing processes. http://alchemy-studio.net/