CHRIS McCAW
Chris McCaw, né en 1971 à Daly City, en Californie, est un photographe qui explore la relation intrinsèque entre la photographie et le soleil. Depuis l’enfance, il expérimente avec ce médium qui le fascine sous toutes ses formes, documentant dès les années 1980 la scène californienne du skateboard, des fanzines et du punk. Pendant ses études en arts plastiques, il découvre les appareils grand format, dont la simplicité le séduit, et commence à expérimenter divers procédés de tirage avant de construire ses propres appareils à partir de 1995.
Oscillant entre littéralité et abstraction, McCaw cherche à la fois à capter avec précision notre place dans un paysage cosmique en mouvement, et à créer des compositions abstraites à partir des lignes et points brûlés par le soleil. Il équipe ses appareils grand format d’objectifs puissants, habituellement utilisés pour la surveillance militaire. À la place de la pellicule, il insère directement dans la chambre photographique du papier argentique à base de gélatine et de fibres, souvent périmé. En orientant l’objectif vers le soleil, il réalise des expositions allant de trente secondes à quatre-vingt-quatre heures. La lumière, amplifiée par l’objectif, brûle son trajet sur le papier tout en imprimant une image solarisée du paysage ou de la mer en dessous une image positive directe, produite sans négatif.
Dans sa quête pour prolonger la durée de ses photographies, McCaw a effectué quatre voyages dans le cercle arctique en été, lorsque le soleil ne se couche jamais, afin de documenter le phénomène du soleil de minuit. Dans toute son œuvre, ces lignes et perforations brûlées sont les traces matérielles du geste photographique : elles marquent le temps, indiquent un lieu, traduisent des conditions météorologiques et captent la lumière.
Le travail de McCaw a été exposé dans de nombreuses institutions, dont la National Gallery of Art à Washington DC, le Los Angeles County Museum of Art, l’Art Institute of Chicago, le Museum of Fine Arts à Boston, le Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art à Bentonville, le Portland Art Museum, le Rijksmuseum à Amsterdam et la Somerset House à Londres.
Ses œuvres font partie de collections majeures telles que celles du Metropolitan Museum of Art à New York, du J. Paul Getty Museum à Los Angeles, du San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, du Whitney Museum of American Art à New York, du Chrysler Art Museum à Norfolk, du Philadelphia Museum of Art, de la National Gallery of Art et du Smithsonian American Art Museum à Washington DC, ainsi que du Victoria and Albert Museum à Londres, parmi bien d’autres.
Chris McCaw a reçu de nombreuses distinctions, notamment une bourse New Works de la Fondation Andy Warhol, le prix Alternative Exposure, ainsi que le prix Emerging Icon in Photography décerné par le George Eastman House. Il vit et travaille à Pacifica, en Californie.
SÉLECTION D’OEUVRES
VIDÉOS
Chris McCaw • In focus
Le galeriste Thierry Bigaignon présente l’exposition “Marking Time”.
Chris McCaw • Présentation
Chris McCaw partage son processus technique et artistique.
Chris McCaw • Timelapse
Un aperçu du travail de Chris McCaw avec la caméra Cirkus en Alaska.
PUBLICATION
EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES
2024 “Marking Time”, Bigaignon, Paris, France
2023 “Chris McCaw: Early Works”, Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, États-Unis
2022 “Into the Sun”, Datz Museum of Art, Gwangju, Corée du Sud
2016 “Direct Positive”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, États-Unis
2012 “Marking Time”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, États-Unis
2011 “Ride into the Sun”, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, États-Unis 2010 Sunburned, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, États-Unis
2008 “New work from the Sunburn Project”, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, New York , États-Unis
2008 “Sunburn”, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, États-Unis
2008 “Sunburns”, Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, États-Unis
2003 “Powerhouse”, Family Farm and Travelogue, Image/Imatge Gallery, Orthez, France
EXPOSITIONS COLLECTIVES
2025 “La fabrique des éléments”, Galerie Capazza, Nançay, France
2025 “The pulse of life”, Daegu Photo Biennale #10, Daegu, Corée du Sud
2025 Paris-Photo, Paris, France
2025 Atto 1/3 Sotto la luce, Bigaignon x Rhinoceros Gallery, Rome, 19 septembre - 18 novembre 2025
2025 “Ligne(s) de mire”, exposition hors-les-murs au Bonisson Art Center, Bigaignon, Rognes, France
2024 “The Awe of the Arctic”, New York Public Library, New York, États-Unis
2023 “Elemental”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, États-Unis
2023 “Touch the Sun”, Marshall Gallery, Santa Monica, États-Unis
2023 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, États-Unis
2022 “Time’s Relentless Melt”, Princeton University: Art on Hulfish, Princeton, États-Unis
2021 “Solar Flare”, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, Nouvelle-Zélande, [curated by Ben Cauchi]
2021 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, Portland Art Museum, Portland, États-Unis
2021 “Blaze Across the Firmament”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, États-Unis
2020 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, États-Unis
2020 “ONE: An Exhibition of Unique Objects”, Transformer Station, Cleveland, États-Unis
2020 “Process and Invention: West Coast Photographers Expanding the Medium”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, États-Unis
2020 “Image + Object”, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, États-Unis
2020 “Photography to the Test of Abstraction”, FRAC Normandie Rouen, Rouen, France
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2019 “Fundamentals, Black Box Projects”, London, UK
2019 “Painting with Light”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
2019 “The Sheltering Sky”, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
2018 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2018 “10,000 Fahrenheit”, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
2018 “New Territory: Landscape Photography Today”, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2017 “Dark Room”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
2017 “Sea Views”, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 “Phenomenon”, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
2017 “The Basilisk”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 “Low Fidelity: The Action of Light”, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
2016 “A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age”, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
2016 “Retro-spective: Analog Photography in a Digital World”, MOCA, Jacksonville, FL
2016 “The Sun Placed in the Abyss”, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
2016 “Berkeley Eye: Perspectives on the Collection”, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film
2016 “Archive”, Berkeley, CA
2016 “I Am the Sun”, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2016 “Touch the Sky: Art and Astronomy”, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2016 “This is a Photograph”, Penland Gallery, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
2016 “Defying Darkness: Photography at Night”, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
2016 “Look Inside: New Photography Acquisitions”, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, TX
2015 “Photography and the Scientific Spirit”, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2015 “The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund”, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
2015 “Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography”, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2014 “Modern Alchemy: Experiments in Photography”, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2013 “Reality Check, Bakalar & Paine Galleries”, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
2013 “With a Trace: Photographs of Absence”, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2013 “Currents: Photographs from the Collection of Allen Thomas Jr.”, Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, NC
2013 “Landmark: The Fields of Photography”, Somerset House Trust, London, UK
2013 “Light Sensitive: Photographic Works from North Carolina Collections”, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC
2011 “Sun Works”, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2011 “Bending the Light”, Oakland International Airport Exhibition, Oakland, CA
2011 “Heavens: Photographs of the Sky and Cosmos”, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2011 “Seeing is Knowing: the Universe”, Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
2011 “Out of the Dark Room”, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2011 “Pure Photography, Post Production and Mixed Media”, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ California
2011 “Continued: New Approaches in West Coast Photography”, Smith Anderson North, San Anselmo, CA
2011 “EcoArchive: Meditations on Time and Nature”, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 “The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography”, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2010 “Redisplay of the Photography Collection”, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
2010 “Past Forward: Marking Time in Recent Photography”, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 “Exposed: Today’s Photography/Yesterday’s Technology”, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA
2010 “Elemental”, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 “Edges of Light: Explorations of the Photographic Process”, ArtsBenicia, Benicia, CA
2010 “State of Mind: A California Invitational”, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
2010 “An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area Part 2: The Future Lasts Forever”, SFCamerawork, San Francisco, CA
2010 “Burning Desire”, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, New York, NY
2009 “Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2009 “The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography”, Aperture Gallery, NY
2009 “Transmutations”, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, NY
2009 “Landmark”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 “Keeping Time”, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA
2008 “Landscape/Other”, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA
2008 “People & Places”, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC Each Sun, Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 “Grace”, PEER Gallery, New York, NY
2008 “Mineral”, Hous Projects, New York, NY
2008 “Sunburn”, The Center for Contemporary Arts, Abilene, TX
2007 “Time Tracers”, Center of Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
2007 “Sunburn”, Houston Center of Photography, Houston, TX
2007 “Strange Weather”, David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, CA
2007 “Sunburn”, Burien Art Gallery, Burien, WA
2007 “Sunburns and Platinum Work”, Moab Art Works, Moab, UT
2007 “Lucky Day”, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 “Sunburned & Waterlogged”, Gallery of Urban Art, Oakland, CA
2006 “Eyewitness II”, UC Berkeley School of Journalism, Berkeley, CA
2006 “Platinum Places”, Watermark Fine Art, Houston, TX
2006 “Outmoded”, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
2006 “Lost Out West”, 19th & Union Gallery, Oakland, CA
2006 “Contemporary Landscape”, Baxter/Chang/Patri Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2006 “The Family Farm”, San Francisco International Airport Museum, CA
2005 “Romancing the Shadows”, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
2005 “Vital Signs”, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
2005 “The Family Farm”, Watermark Fine Art, Houston, TX
2005 “Travelogue”, Fusion Artspace, San Francisco, CA
2004 “Live Free or Die”, Freewheel, San Francisco, CA
2003 “Chris McCaw-American Photographs”, Image/Imatge Gallery, Orthez, France
2002 “Identity”, San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, CA
2001 “Vivid”, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
2000 “Timeless Light”, Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, OR
1999 “Portraits”, Bloom Studio, Oakland, CA
1998 “Road Trip Documents”, Spindler, San Francisco, CA
1995 “Graduate show”, Academy of Art, San Francisco, CA
1993 “Friends of the South Bay Punk Scene”, The Other Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
1991 “Infrared Views”, The Other Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
DISTINCTIONS
2014 Emerging Icon in Photography, George Eastman House, International Museum of Film and Photography, Rochester, États-Unis
2008 New Works Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation / SF Camerawork, San Francisco, États-Unis
2007 Alternative Exposure Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation / Southern Exposure, San Francisco, États-Unis
1996 Honorable Mention, Photo Metro Photography Contest Issue
1992 John Long Memorial Photography Scholarship, De Anza College, Cupertino, États-Unis
COLLECTIONS
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, États-Unis
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, États-Unis
Crocker Art Museum Sacramento, États-Unis
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, États-Unis
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, Rochester, États-Unis Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, États-Unis
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, États-Unis
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, États-Unis
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, États-Unis
Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, États-Unis
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, États-Unis
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, États-Unis
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC National Gallery of Art, Washington, États-Unis
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, États-Unis
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, États-Unis
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, États-Unis
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, États-Unis
Portland Art Museum, Portland, États-Unis
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, États-Unis
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, États-Unis
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, États-Unis
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, États-Unis
University of Oregon, Eugene, États-Unis
Victoria and Albert Museum, Londres, UK
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, États-Unis