Paint Cans, 2009, FB selenium-toned silver gelatin print, 38 x 47 cm

Gas Pump, 2009, FB selenium-toned silver gelatin print, 62 x 76 cm

Law Office, 2009, FB selenium-toned silver gelatin print, 81 x 102 cm

Soap, 2009, FB selenium-toned silver gelatin print, 33 x 27 cm

The Whites

Mike Andrew McLean

January 14 to February 12, 2011

Etymologically, photography means writing or drawing with light, and as such it is a mad-scientific endeavour. Light as a physical phenomenon both reveals our surroundings and obscures our sight, and traditional photographic processes reflect this polarization. In allowing for correct exposure, light immediately darkens film. Images result from a correlated duel with this immaterial ingredient: measured parts avoidance, allowance and alteration.

This series represents an exploration of the subject of whiteness—not necessarily white pictures, but a study of how things become white when photographed. Though some of the images represent objects that are indeed chromatically void, other subjects become white only when photographed in a monochromatic process, such as a propane flame on a two burner camp-stove or a vintage wicker lampshade in a nondescript budget motel.

Beyond their whiteness, many of the physical subjects of these photographs are material things in the process of disappearing: a bar of soap, an observatory now unused, a boarded law office. Similarly, analogue photography is approaching obsolescence. The images in this series were all made using a rarefied form of production: 4x5 sheet film exposed through a camera manufactured half a century ago, then hand processed, printed and toned. But the subjects and the method fit the form. It is through photographs that we are allowed to see—again and with staunch fidelity—that which no longer exists.

Mike Andrew McLean received his BFA in Media Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Since 2004 he has lived on Vancouver Island, where he completed his MFA at the University of Victoria. McLean’s work has recently been shown in the group exhibition Sentimental Journeys at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, and in the solo exhibition Range: Mountain National Parks Photographs (LAB 9.1) at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Upcoming solo exhibitions include the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, Chernoff Fine Art in Vancouver and Kamloops Art Gallery. McLean is currently a Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria.