Animal Land
ALYSSA SALOMON
May 4 - June 24, 2017
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Alyssa Salomon’s newest series, “Animal Land” explores the nocturnal landscape and the feral beauty hidden within heavily developed places along the East Coast corridor. Over the course of the last year Salomon has served as an Artist-in-Residence at Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Rivers Center, collaborating with biologist Anne Wright, Rice’s Director of Environmental Outreach, to highlight the mysticism of the ecosystems within the Central Virginia section of the James River Watershed. Salomon transforms night-vision stills from digital infrared cameras into handmade van dyke prints, resulting in romantic visions of unseen environments. In this ongoing photographic project, Salomon invites viewers to reconsider familiar landscapes as being cohabited by humans and other species, presenting moments experienced by non-human animals that are often overlooked and would otherwise not occur in the presence of humans.
Special thanks are due Anne Wright for allowing use of imagery collected from biodiversity research in James River Park System. To Dr. Leonard Smock, Dr. Greg Garman, Anne Wright, Virginia Commonwealth University Rice Rivers Center, Science in the Park, Nathan Burrell and James River Park System, appreciation and admiration for innovative thinking, imaginative research, generosity, and spectacularly rich habitats.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alyssa Salomon is a photographer, poet, consummate craftsperson and, also, a bit of a mad scientist. Using her own recipes for the nineteenth-century photographic processes of cyanotype and van dyke printing, Salomon makes handmade prints that “recall an accumulation of sights seen and linked by treasured recollections.” Her images record moments—snippets of experience—which seek to connect what is human with what is wild: tree branches against a stark winter sky, birds frozen in mid air, a private moment relishing the feel of water. Salomon’s camera becomes the human eye, winking on these moments of serenity and delight, connecting disparate subjects that invoke the richness of our senses. This somehow similar to how a photo book works, a narrative of life’s beautiful moments.
Salomon lives and works in Providence Forge, Virginia, where she has been a leader in alternative photo processes since the late 1990s. She has taught extensively, including workshops at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina; the Ah Haa School in Telluride, Colorado; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School in Richmond, Virginia; and Virginia Commonwealth University, among others. Her work is included in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Ritz Carlton Dubai, Hotel Palomar Philadelphia, and many other public and private collections. Salomon is a two-time recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.
