On Wednesday, April 11th
I attended the Sunrise Sunset exhibition of more than 50 Solargraphs taken by Bill Wittliff at The Wittliff Collections, Alkek Library (7th Floor) at the Texas State University in San Marcos. I had heard about Bill's work, and I was curious to find out how the images taken without a shutter and lens looked like.
Wittliff Path to SPI Solargraph and Wittliff Spires
Wittliff Path to SPI Solargraph and Wittliff Spires are some of the masterpieces of art created by Bill Wittliff, a writer, film producer, and photographer. Bill Wittliff began making these images in 2014. He used PVC pipes; sections or tallboy beer cans where he paced his pinhole cameras and left them in that state for weeks or months. On retrieving, the images generated from tracing the sun's movement, he referred to them as solargraphs.
Elements of Art in the Pieces
These pieces of art incorporate various elements of art including line, color, space light and shape explaining the differences observed. The Wittliff Path to SPI Solargraph is a small-scale picture consisting of many curved lines with each line having one curve. The curved lines in these creations that have a symmetrical distance in between them instill a calm mood and depict ordered movement. The hue is blue with a light value. The colors used are harmonious with a variety of colors applied including blue and green. This work does not create a three-dimensional illusion of depth and space. The paths traced by the sun do not overlap. The art's area is crowded on its top left section and empty on its right part. The light in this work is cool as depicted by the hue. The light in the image entails the color of the sun's light captured by the pinhole cameras.
Wittliff Spires
Wittliff Spires is also a small-scale image with relatively fewer curved lines that intersect at different points especially towards the left and right edges of the arcs. Due to lack of symmetry between the lines, the movement depicted is one that is not orderly. This image is not monochromatic as there are various shades of green and black to name a few. The photograph has a value of darkness. The colors used here do clash with each other. It, like the previous art, does not create an illusion of a three-dimensional space. The paths traced by the sun overlap. This image's space is equally crowded. The light of this work is also cool. Bill creates the illusion of light in this image by actually taking photographs of the bright sun when it is at different locations during the week or months.
Colors and Shapes in the Images
The colors and shapes in the two images resulting in a balanced and harmonious effect. In the second image, Wittliff Spires, the contrast appears in contours. The arcs representing the sum's path and movement draws the viewers' eyes from the left towards the right of the image. The intensity of the various elements of art used in Wittliff's Path to SPI Solargraph these images meet my expectation due to the parallel curves. Wittliff's Spires incorporates varying intensities of art's elements in a masterful way leading to a stunning image. The curves representing the sun's path are the crucial aspects of these images. This is because they seem to vary between the two images and their sizes about those of other objects in the periphery are quite large attracting the viewer's attention more. The theme of these images encompasses the repeat of the curves.
Bill Wittliff's Intention
In my opinion, by exhibiting these images, Bill Wittliff intended for us to understand and see that the sun traces various paths. He also wanted to bring to our attention that the routes the sun followed and the trends were different depending on the time of the year or were affected by various factors. Bill's work is beautiful, and it shows the intelligence and patience that artists ought to have to produce exemplary works of art.
