Masur Museum 58th Juried Competition

I think continually about how to present images. I am honored to have two images in the Masur Museum 58th Annual Juried Competition. One of the pieces received third place. and I wanted to share a little about the photograph and how I presented the work in this exhibition.

To see the exhibition online and watch the juror talk click here

This photograph is my daughter covered in about thousand Morpho butterfly wings. Pinned into the print are Morpho butterfly specimen and Jewel beetle wings. why ? the butterflies and beetle wings appear to shift color depending on angle of light. The limit of a photograph makes it impossible to experience the magic of seeing the colors shift. so……. of course i had to put the actual bugs on the print. below is an example of moving the light a few degrees. circled are the exact wing in each frame. crazy right!! is it blue, pink, or purple?

the beetles and butterflies shift color as the viewer walks past the piece.

first problem to solve in presentation is how to protect the specimen pinned into the print. a giant insect drawer to hold the 40x50 photograph. problem solved! kinda. My butterfly expert friend made some things during covid with ash wood full of beetle galleries that i thought were beautiful. frame problem solved, i can get my bug friend and frame friend to collaborate and engineer giant beetle riddled drawers. below is an example of real insect drawer.

one really cool detail on the frame is a pull with a label card that has the title of the piece. the frame relates to the piece in so many ways adding depth to the art. below are details and the finished piece, Wavelengths between us..

a photograph of the piece gives the illusion that all the information is within the photo as a print, unable to discern between what existed in the original photograph and what is added after the image was printed. What is real and what isn’t is all about perception and ones on reality.