Noah Doely, The Expanse of a Fact, 2012

This sweet and curious photograph was made by Noah Doely, a US artist working with the collodion wet-plate process. It’s part of a series called The Expanse of a Fact about a fictional white-bearded man exploring the moon through constructed models. “I see him as an amalgamation of other figures from history from both the realms of science and art, from Kepler to Georges Méliès.” (-Noah Doely)

Noah Doely is part of worldwide reaction against the ease and sterility of digital photography, returning to the most recalcitrant and poisonous processes of the 19th century, wet-plate, Daguerreotype etc.

Surely it’s only a matter of time before someone revives Niépce’s process of 1826 and mixes up some Bitumen of Judea!

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