With the help of a handcrafted 50” x 40” camera loaded on the back of a pickup truck, photographer John Chiara has brought awe and wonder to the urban landscape of New York City once again. In a body of work on view at Yossi Milo Gallery, the exhibition John Chiara: Pike Slip to Sugar Hillspeaks to the magic of spontaneous surprises at the heart of analog photography.

Pike Slip to Sugar Hill

September 6 - October 27, 2018

© Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

Chiara’s process involves a near simultaneous shooting and printing process on the spot. Using a precision barrel lens, images are projected directly onto color photographic paper installed in the camera. While the images are exposed, Chiara dodges, burns and filters light to create otherworldly effects. His process alters both color temperature and the color spectrum, and ultimately results in prints featuring the reversal of light and shadow and colors, due to image transfer onto negative paper.

John Chiara

5th Avenue at 30th Street, Variation 2, 2018

Negative Chromogenic Photograph

Approximately 50" x 40" (127 x 101.5 cm)

© John Chiara, Courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

While the altered and at times electric colors are reminiscent of a technological feel, something in their presentation suggests an analog process, enjoyably executed in the realm of chance. Chiara further complicates his relationship to past, present and future photographic style by choosing a range of architectural subjects. Classic buildings, as well as modern skyscrapers, are featured alongside images that experiment with the interplay of trees and the built environment.

John Chiara

Tudor City Place at East 43rd Street, 2018

Negative Chromogenic Photograph

Approximately 50" x 40" (127 x 101.5 cm)

© John Chiara, Courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

The large-scale photographs bring to mind any number of real world references: x-rays, blueprints, Halloween, or a nighttime Superman cityscape, to name a few. In one image, pre-war residential towers at Tudor City Place and 43rd Street emerge into a black sky in the center-background of the image. The foreground edges of the photograph are framed by the leafy upper echelons of an assortment of trees. Black and orange hues, then shades of blue that fade into white, cascade down from the top of the photograph. The image is reminiscent of a spooky or carefree night in the city, when rules seem meant to be broken.

John Chiara

West 42nd Street at 5th Avenue, 2018

Negative Chromogenic Photograph

Approximately 50" x 40" (127 x 101.5 cm)

© John Chiara, Courtesy of Yossi Milo Gallery, New York

A chartreuse green cityscape haunts the left and right edges of another photograph, with a swatch of black sky cutting through the middle of the picture plane as it descends into the back of the image. The buildings are varied in height, creating movement and a sense of asymmetry that echoes the erratic energy of city life. John Chiara’s work in Pike Slip to Sugar Hillis a delightful reminder of the history of photography as well as its wide-open future; one where combinations of analog, digital, and hand-crafted innovations can offer endless modes of creative expression.

John Chiara: Pike Slip to Sugar Hill is on view through October 27, 2018 at Yossi Milo Gallery.