If you’re part of the analog renaissance, you might have a Polaroid or two posted on your fridge or mirror, but, for the majority of people today, photography is an art consumed and shared almost exclusively online.
That relationship between the medium — which, increasingly, is experiencing a resurgence of analog-film popularity — and its digital dissemination is the theme behind a new photography exhibit at Latitude 53.
Aptly titled IRL (In Real Life for those not as fluent in internet lingo), the exhibit, which runs until May 11, brings the work of four Edmonton photographers off the small screens of their Instagram pages, websites and laptops and onto the walls of Latitude 53’s gallery.
“There are loads of artists working with photography in the community, but they don’t tend to work in print,” says Adam Waldron-Blain, the program manager with Latitude 53. “It’s very common for people to post those photos on Instagram or have a private practice that’s primarily digital.”
IRL brings a new way of consuming digital photography by changing the way in which the audience consumes the photo, according to Waldron-Blain. Photos in the exhibit are blown up as large as 40 inches by 60 inches and then pasted flat against the walls of the gallery.
“We’re playing with that [transference from digital to physical] with the way the show is installed,” he says. “They sort of have a feeling that resembles the experience of scrolling or viewing things online even though they aren’t digital.”
Lexi Pendzich is among the four photographers exhibiting their work at IRL (the other three being Jordon Hon, Wesley O’Driscoll and Salem Zurch). Pendzich, whose work focuses on portraiture of women and Queer people in Edmonton’s skateboarding subculture, says the different way of viewing her work has created new dimensions in viewership.
“It brings more presence,” Pendzich says. “Going from looking at these small negatives to uploading a digital image to then the quality … in physical print is really cool. It’s more all-encompassing and an engaging experience.”
Pendzich’s work, alongside Hon’s, also graces the exterior of Latitude 53’s gallery during its tenure, which has garnered her some more organic feedback than social media curation typically supplies.
“I had a skateboarder go by and take a self-portrait with one of the portraits I took of them,” Pendzich says. “When you’re showing it online, you’ll get a like, but you don’t get that real feedback.”
Digitally detox your art consumption at Latitude 53, until May 11.
