Bryce Julien

Sunflares

Holes lack tangibility, yet we refer to them, often as if material, and recognize their significance in constituting other objects, but what constitutes a hole– a hollow space lacking material inners? A definable material edge enclosing a void? The presence of absence, or the absence of anything? To consider the objecthood and utility of the hole, I look to the pinhole as a component of the photographic apparatus and as the basis for experimentation.

Travelling light rays are bent around objects or through openings, altering their angle of transmission. This optical phenomena, termed as diffraction, is the primary operation at play in producing pinhole photographs. The resulting imagery is affected by a range of technical and aesthetic signatures; but it is the optical flaring, the lensless lens flare, I am drawn to.

By directly photographing the sun, I ensure the consequence of optical flaring. An indefinite objecthood of the pinhole is thereby indexed in the image in the form of kaleidoscopic artifacts. The flares, each of unique patterning, embed themselves in the images as newly generated forms, extending the photographic process beyond its conventional mode of re-production, and into the realm of production. With the use of pinhole technology, this generative process attempts to manifest images that are latent in photographic methods and materials.

(2021)