Birgit Blyth

Though Birgit Blyth began her photographic career using conventional photographic methods, she quickly became more interested in alternative processes. In the mid 1990’s a colleague showed her an article in Scientific American and it was here that she first discovered the technique called “chromoskedasic” painting, which would eventually lead her to fully finding her voice as a photographer.

Blyth had always aligned herself with and been moved by abstract expressionist painting. The series of veil paintings by post-abstract expressionist, Morris Louis, was especially inspiring to her and caused her to ask herself how she could do similar interpretations photographically. In “chromoskedasic” painting, she found the answers and would begin on a new path in her artwork.

The term “chromoskedasic” is derived from Greek roots meaning color by light scattering. Developed by a photographer named Dr. Dominic Man-Kit Lam, this process exploits the capability of silver particles in black and white photographic paper to “scatter” light at different wavelengths when exposed to light and chemicals. In her mastery of this photochemical drawing process, Blyth has painted lush washes of color into her own “Veil Series;” she has envisioned landscapes, both rural and urban, with melting swirls and marbled colors into rich palettes of toffee and lead. She has used this essentially experimental process to help her “see” the world around her. Blyth says she continues to be fascinated by the process because it requires “a combination of discipline, experimentation, and imagination, making possible a wonderful balance between control and surprise.”

Because the chromoskedasic work is all analog, Blyth spends much of her studio time in the darkroom, which has become a rarity in the current world of digital photography. She does however, continue her preference for experimentation in numerous directions, even employing aspects of the digital age – this exhibit will also feature a new series of pieces created with the now defunct but much loved SX-70 polaroid camera, scanned and archivally printed on 24” x 24” fine cotton rag paper.

Whatever the process, Blyth’s work is, as the painter and poet, Peter Sacks noted, a blend of “precision and mystery, of articulation and atmosphere.” Her images leave us with the feeling of ongoing action despite the apparent stillness; of qualities both dreamy and stark as light hits a stand of birch trees in a valley or a group of buildings in New York City. As Morris Louis evolved a style of painting that produced a complete integration of paint and canvas, so too has Blyth, with photo paper and chemicals, created a perfect integration of method and content.

Resume

Born: Kousted, Denmark
Resident in U.S.A. since 1963

Education:

Denmark and U.S.A.
Project, Inc., Cambridge MA (Photography)
DeCordova Museum School, Lincoln MA (Printmaking)
Maine Photography Workshop, Rockport ME (Photography)
Boston Museum School (Photography and Printmaking)

Member of:

Cambridge Art Association
Photographic Resource Center, Boston MA
Concord Art Association, Distinguished Artist Member since 1988

Co-founder of CAMERADA (Critique group of 6 photographers), 1978-

Shows with CAMERADA:
University Place, Cambridge, 1998
University Place, Cambridge, 1994
Cornelius Wood Gallery, Middlesex School, Concord, 1993
Concord Art Association, 1989
Juliani Gallery, MBCC, Wellesley, 1988
Newton Free Library, 1987
Cambridge Art Association, 1984
Concord Library, 1982
Project, Inc., Cambridge, 1980

Solo Shows Carrie Haddad Photographs, Hudson, NY, 2010

Group Shows:

Carroll & Sons, Boston, "Drawing Project," 2009 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY, 2008 Haddad Lascano Gallery, 2007 GASP (Gallery Artist Studio Projects), Brookline, MA, 2007 Welles Gallery, Lenox, MA, 2006 Concord Art Association, 2005 Higgins Art Gallery, Barnstable, MA, 2005 BF Gallery, Boston, 2005 Haddad Lascano Gallery, Gt. Barrington, MA, 2005 Cambridge Art Association (3 Person show), 2002 Concord Art Association, March, 2002
New England Photographers 2001, Danforth Museum, Framingham, 2001
Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, December 2000
Cambridge Art Association, National Invitational show, 2000
Fuller Museum, Brockton, 9th Triennial, 1999
Cambridge Art Association, members’ show (1st prize, prints), 1998
Cambridge Art Association, National Invitational show (1st prize, prints), 1998
Spazi Gallery, Housatonic MA, 1994
New England Photographers 1994, Danforth Museum, Framingham, 1994
Cambridge Art Association (Juror’s citation), 1994
Albany Center of the Arts, Albany, N.Y., 1990
Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (4 person show), 1986
Cambridge Art Association (4 person show), 1984
Cambridge Art Association, 1983
Project, Inc., Cambridge, 1981
Cambridge Art Association, 1979
Pratt Institute, N.Y., 1979
Museum School, Boston, 1978
Project, Inc., Cambridge, 1976
Panopticon Gallery, New England Photographers, 1976
Residencies Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg, South Africa 1996 Pinhole and alternative photography 1997 Photography and Silkscreen 1998 Photography and waterless lithography 2000 Printmaking 2004 Pinhole and alternative photography 2005 Black and white photography 2006 Alternative photography 2007 Alternative photography 2008 Alternative photography
Northern Territory University, Darwin, Australia 2001 Pinhole and alternative photography; car battery etching "Out of the Dump" Project, Guatemala City 2000 Alternative photography

Visiting Artist: 1996 School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Paper making; alternative photography 2000 School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Chromoskedasik alternative photography 2001 Interlaken School of Art (IS 183), Stockbridge, MA; Alternative photography 2003 Berkshire Community College, Pittsfield, MA; Alternative photo processing
Publications:
The Mothers’ Book, ed. Ronnie Friedland and Carol Kort. Boston, 1981 Speaking of Galbraith, by Peggy Lamson. Boston, 1991 New Dimensions in Photo Processes, by Laura Blacklow, 4th edition, 2006