Two figures wade waist-deep through the water, the air humid and heavy, silhouetted against the glare of the setting sun nearing a distant horizon. Finding their subject - a statuesque Mangrove tree - lifting itself by its roots out of the water, they gather their chemistry and set their large format camera to memorialize the scene with a nineteenth-century photographic process that allows only precious minutes to complete successfully from start to finish. They’ve been at it all day, weary, but very much alive in the search and the process they collaborate on. They photograph using the wet plate collodion process, a difficult process to begin with, only to have the situation exacerbated by the environment itself. Work continues until the waning light of day has finally disappeared and they head back with their fortune of unique images on black aluminum plates.

These figures are Charlie McCullers and Cecilia Montalvo, two people who’ve embarked on a project steeped both in the history of the photographic medium and the beautiful solitude found in South Florida’s barrier islands. However, this project is much more than the captured beauty that exists out here, as it is one of discovery - the kind that draws two people together to experience a sense of origin. Meeting first while both working on their MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design, it was shared past experiences of maternal loss that drew them together to collaborate on a project that attempts to reconnect with a time when people felt the great, magical forces of the Earth. Stated so eloquently by Cecilia, “Our work is about origins, and going home. We have a middle-life perspective now on how mythologies of belonging are interconnected with our total experience. We want the photographs to show what it means to play an ephemeral part in the story of nature.”

The logistics of this project are far from simple. As stated before, the wet plate collodion process; in their case using a 4x5 Linhof camera creating tintypes, is a process needing continued practice to master at any level. Couple this with humidity and temperature challenges, not to mention the wind and moving water of the environment you are often wading through, and you’ve got a recipe that demands concentration and synchronization at an absurd degree. All of these obstacles result in very unique and stunning results for their plates, however. Often, the chemistry used on a final plate mirrors the look and feel of the moment that was permanently captured. As a way of bringing the experience to full fruition for their efforts, Charlie and Cecilia scan their final plates and create 50”x40” archival pigment prints to emphasize the feeling they intend the viewer to participate in. This now hybrid process is necessary to complete the look and aesthetic of their intended vision and is worth every moment spent in front of one of these images in person. Analog Forever Magazine is pleased to present our readers with Where the Light Enters.

Where the Light Enters 

“Characterized by the dynamic nature of the land-sea interaction, barrier islands are places with many shape narratives, and inversions. A barrier island is ephemeral, an instance of simultaneity, above and below what we call the surface. Mangroves straddle these mirror worlds, walking on water, making something out of nothing. Light rushes through every keyhole and seam in palm forest canopies, which is another sort of inundation. The islands are always being eroded and redeposited, their permanence rooted in impermanence, existing where many forces converge. Everything residual from the land and the sea is ultimately represented there. And in that history, that recording, that perpetual washing over of it all, beautiful things and ugly things, there is a prelapsarian magic, which is always starting over, clean.

This work is metaphorical. It's about demarcation and intermediation. It's about origins, and going back.

It's about the paradoxes of individual experience within the enormous, scary, and magical system.”

GALLERY

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Charles A. McCullers is a working photographer from Atlanta. Opening a commercial studio in 1985, he has produced numerous award-winning advertising/collateral/exhibition campaigns for Fortune 500 companies, professional athletic teams and international arts organizations. McCullers matriculated from the University of Georgia with a BFA in photographic design and holds an MA and MFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Cecilia A. Montalvo was born and raised in Miami, and today lives in Atlanta. After graduating from the University of Virginia, she worked at The Phillips Collection, Smithsonian Magazine, and for Harvard University at Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington, DC. She holds an MFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

McCullers and Montalvo are represented in Atlanta by Jackson Fine Art. Connect with the artists on their Website and Instagram!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Kirchoff is a photographic artist, independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He has been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass, and has reviewed portfolios for the Los Angeles Center of Photography’s Exposure Reviews and CENTER’s Review Santa Fe. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, Founding Editor for the online photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews, and a Contributing Editor for the column, Traverse, at One Twelve Publishing. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR Magazine.

 Connect with Michael Kirchoff on his Website and Instagram!

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