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February 12, 2018 – Fort Myers, FL – On Friday, March 2nd, celebrate the opening night of London Amara’s “Ethos.” London Amara’s “ethos” explores themes of convergence, context and perspective through a series of immersive photos created using the collodion photography method. The Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center is located at 2301 First St. in the historic downtown Fort Myers River District.
 
London Amara: “Ethos”
Opening: Friday, March 2nd • 6pm – 10pm
Closing: March 27th • 5pm
Free to Attend • Grand Atrium
For more info, visit www.sbdac.com
 
For her second solo exhibition at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art center, artist London Amara created “ethos,” an assemblage of both hand-made, silver gelatin prints created from film negatives as well as images created by the alternative photographic process known as collodion photography. This technology was developed during the birth of photography in the mid 1800’s, and employs a large format camera to record images on glass and metal plates. A hand-mixed combination of cotton cellulose, iodide, bromide, alcohol and ether are poured onto the plate in the darkroom before sensitization in a silver nitrate bath. The plate is exposed in the camera, then brought back to the darkroom to be developed. Each plate must be cleaned, colloidal poured, sensitized in silver bath, exposed, developed, washed, fixed, three additional washes, allowed to dry overnight and then varnished. The end result is a virtually grainless image, and because this type of photography requires 75%-80% UV light, it “sees” things our human optic coverage does not.
Various factors (humidity, temperature, wind) change the way the colloidal chemistry behaves in a single moment of time, never again to be experienced or reproduced. It’s an extremely contrasted recipe of rapid, back-to-back steps that require slow movement, including a naturally occurring film speed of .5-2, so low light exposures can easily be 10 minutes or longer. That’s an eternity of time in photography for the shutter to remain open, and that’s when it gets phenomenal. This is evident in Amara’s 12 minute exposure of a Pacific fern frond titled “Praeter Naturam,”meaning beyond what is natural or normal. This image visually describes the air filled, fluid space of spirit and spontaneity where our extra sensory perception is required.
 
London Amara, (b. 1977) is an American born sculptor, painter, photographer and writer. Amara is the daughter of a second generation builder and a formal art educator. She was raised in the remote forests of Ohio and credits her indigenous environment as the primary influence in her work today. Amara was immersed in the natural world as a child and refers to the woodlands as her “First Language.” Her work often employs raw industrial materials, elements of language and techniques that rely on alchemizing precision with the unknown and imperfection. Amara was awarded scholarship and classically trained as a fine artist at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. Her work has been exhibited at the Columbus Conservatory, Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center and the Tampa Museum of Art. Amara has been a guest lecturer at the University of South Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University and currently hosts monthly artist talks at her studio. Additionally, Amara’s work was the subject of a 2012 film by Rising Sky Studios and she was the recipient of the 2013 Vincent LeCavalier commemorative commission. She recently embarked on a two year project, documenting the land she was raised on and is creating a book set to be published in 2020. Amara works as a full time, professional artist in Bonita Springs, Florida and Columbus, Ohio.
 
IMAGES ATTACHED: _Slow Medicine 37 in. x 30 in., collodian negative hand printed on paper, 2018. 2018-17.jpg; After The Storm, 37 in. x 30 in., collodian negative hand printed on paper, 2018. #2018-9.jpg; Fragile Light, 8 in. x 10 in., ambrotype, 2017.jpg; Praeter Naturam, 8 in. x 10 in., ambrotype, 2017 .jpg Austin Trenholm Photography Buildingshot.jpg
 
 
 

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