Exhibition catalog for Fieldnotes for Useful Light : tamara suarez porras, an exhibition at Embark Gallery.
This exhibition is a poetic photographic exploration of the Prelinger Library, an
independent research library in San Francisco featuring image-rich historical ephemera from the 19th and 20th centuries. What began as an investigation into photometry (the science of the measurement of light, in terms of its perceived brightness to the human eye) evolves towards something less tangible - a meditation on light as a signifier for time and space.
In porras’ work, the light in the Prelinger Library becomes a metaphor for discovery. Like the revelations of research, the secret shadows of the Library unfolded sporadically, organically, and with serendipity, and became for the artist as fruitful for artistic consideration as the texts themselves.
