Eugene Darkroom Group’s membership exhibit “Same Difference” required photographers to capture images using a unique printing method. The exhibit is a two wall gallery of equal size 5×7 photo prints and frames. The 18 photographers in the show were tasked with taking pictures of mundane things such as blurred faces, buildings or trees. Although the imagery is simplistic, each depiction has its own story and connection to the artist.
According to Robert Hirsch in his book “Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography,” Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype, the first silver gelatin printing method, in 1840 as a way for photographers to have flexibility over an image’s intensity of light, shadow and depth of field. The calotype is a negative film paper glossed with light-sensitive chemical silver iodide. This method allowed photographers to retouch their final prints by filling in graphite shadow effects or blue ink to remove excessive darkness. Photographers of the time switched to the calotype from the daguerreotype, a stable negative image on a piece of glass, because it could make infinite copies of negatives onto a light-sensitive paper.
Ben Birkey, a Eugene Darkroom Group board member and general purpose volunteer, said he and his team visioned their 2022 debut exhibit to portray “embodying a work that was unified.” Birkey believes with the limitations of the show, people were forced to make their own interpretations of the “differences” mentioned in the show’s title.
“In an art medium where everyone is using the same color, the same paper and the same materials, we are still able to highlight our differences in the way that we view things,” Birkey said. “The show relates to the larger metaphor — the world is the same as always, but it feels like a time of tremendous change and time of difference.”
Birkey views film photography itself as super restrictive. Film photography only has a certain amount of film roll, and the quality of the photo is unknown until it is developed. The show’s intention, however, was to “highlight the difference of content” and bring out the imagination of the photographers.
“What people can take away from this exhibit is that this little shop in this town has such a range of artistic vision,” Birkey said. “We’re all from the same environment and still able to express different things.”
In EDG member Adrienne Turner’s piece “Touch, 2021,” they wanted to mess around with double exposure while printing it in the darkroom. Double exposure is two images overlapping each other, giving a ghostly effect to the print. Turner portrays a hand in motion while being cast over with a shadow of another hand. Turner thought it would be interesting if she could “transform the image using the same image.” It was their first time using double exposure, and it allowed them to create an effect of overlapping hands reaching out for each other from two different images taken at separate times on the same piece of film.
“This is my partner’s hand, and I felt like in the last year, I’ve taken a lot of photos with hands,” Turner said. “What I like about hands is that it is a vulnerable piece of our body which to me represents connection.”
Turner and the other photographers were not allowed to see each other’s art, forcing them to make independent decisions during the creative process. Turner’s anticipation to see the final results made the show exciting for them. The only thing the artist had access to was the title of the show, and they were not sure how it was going to turn out.
“I had no idea what anybody was going to do,” Turner said. “I think that we were all kind of not knowing what we were going to go for, adding to the excitement for the final results.”
Although the photographer is the key in capturing a moment in time, the subject is not always given the recognition they deserve. Exning Smith, a model based in Eugene, visited the exhibit with her boyfriend from Bend, Oregon, who is interested in joining EDG. She likes to be in front of the camera because she enjoys “having a vision come to life.” She has even been asked by clothing companies to sell their brands. She believes black and white photography is bold, allowing the model and photographer to share intimacy.
“I always like to view other people’s perspectives,” Smith said. “I don’t view myself the same way as someone else might. I judge myself all the time.”
Miles Shepard’s piece “Mademoiselle #3, 2022” uses an alternative method to producing photographs. Although the photo is printed with the same materials as the other pieces in the show, Shepard refrained from using a camera. The portrayed Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle and flowers of the print are created by exposing the objects to light and scanning them onto silver-emulsified paper.
This photo process allows the photographer to control the setting of the objects. The print is not intended to sell a product of beauty. It is a setting of fragmentation and imperfection. The objects are out of focus and topped with mesh wire, giving it an appearance of scattered magazine clippings.
The “Same Difference” exhibit expresses the multifaceted nature of images and the dominating narratives that lead people’s lives.
“Same Difference” is located at Dot Dotson’s photo finishing store at 1668 Willamette Street in Eugene. It is open Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. The show will be on view until Feb. 28.
