She Was a Little Bit Blue, 2021-2023
Shown with Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
For Dora Somosi, the pandemic ushered in a need to reflect the world back in a new way. She utilizes the 19th Century Cyanotype process to good effect. In her renderings of tree canopies, she likens the blue tones and color space to all that it conjures—blue of moodiness, blue of reverie, blue of midnight, blue of remembering, blue of veins and so on. The labor-intensive process acts as a metaphor for the slowing-down of society during a time ravaged by illness and vulnurability. These stunning, monochromatic photographs enable the viewer to escape, to imagine, to contemplate.
“Land Revisited”, Klompching Gallery
Shown with Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York.
Show at The Shen Gallery, On View October 18 - December 16, 2022
Additional work and group exhibitions of the series include The Bolinas Art Museum, The Aidekman Art Center, and the Tremaine Art Gallery and BAM Art.
During the pandemic, having strict parameters forced a positive focus. As Covid continued, I felt the urgency to reflect the world back in a new way. This led to the pursuit of the cyanotype work that I made at The Penumbra Foundation. For this project, I am creating a cast of blue embedded in photographs: the blue of moodiness, the blue of reverie, the blue of midnight, the blue of remembering, the blue of singing the blues, the blue of veins... In this limited color space, I see the temperature of what makes us alive and connects us. This is also the blue of the historic cyanotype, a blue that honors the early photographic process of the first photographer, Anna Atkins. I am using digital negatives with this historic process as this technique combines the excitement of early invention with current digital trends. The process is slow and labor intensive, drawing on the slowing-down of time that we have experienced this Pandemic. - Dora Somosi
