Scott B. Davis: Sonora

Landscape photography between representation and abstraction: new adventures in print and tonality from scott b. davis

Californian photographer scott b. davis’ (born 1971) recent work uses combinations of in-camera palladium paper negatives and traditional film-based platinum/palladium prints. The images explore the boundaries of visibility in the darkness and overwhelming light of the Sonoran Desert, creating pictures of landscapes that are both literal and abstract. The light and space found in the open desert are felt in these uniquely rendered images comprised of diptychs, triptychs and occasional works that include as many as 10 or 12 unique images in a series. By using exposure to intense UV light, davis has pioneered a process that captures images invisible to the naked eye, creating prints rich in contrast to push the boundaries of the visible spectrum and the perceptual limits of human vision. His prints invite closer, deeper looking at landscapes that seem familiar to us in the daylight but evolve into something altogether different when rendered as abstract records of place. The aim is not to represent the desert as we think we know it, but to evoke an intimate connection with the desert through new perspectives.