dye sublimation photograph
2015
36 x 24
edition: 3 of 3
titled, numbered, and signed on verso
Aliyssa first looks like a color abstract. Then very slowly you realize it is an extreme close up of a young woman's face. Only slowly do the water droplets appear with each droplet containing bits and pieces of the woman's face and torso. This image was included as part of the Leonard Exhibition at the Coastal Maine Contemporary Art Museum in 2016. The work is from a series of droplet portraits created of the artist and some of his friends.
Rollin Leonard has spent more than 10 years of exploration on the human body, and more than 3,000 human subjects captured in every imaginable way. His work revolves around developing new photographic techniques and producing semi-sculptural works on paper, plastic, and in video. For the last four years most photographs he's taken have been through a drop of water. He's pushing the limits of water as an optical tool using laser cut plastics, etched glass, hydrophobic materials, oils, liquid vinyl, resin, humidifiers, spray bottles, and syringes. The images and video are supposed to look "fake" or reference computer generated effects but are essentially unaltered out of the camera. The fake-looking effects are physical and real putting him in a category of "real fake." Some would categorize him as part of Simulism (the world view that sees the universe as a simulation) despite not sharing his counterparts' computer generated processes. His work has been exhibited at The Photographer’s Gallery in London, Museum of the Moving Image NYC, Bitforms Gallery NYC, Transfer Gallery NYC, Postmasters Gallery in NYC, Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel, Carnegie Museum of Art, SFMoMA, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Whitney Museum in NYC.
