Brendan Bullock, No. 3, 2026, Unique solarized silver gelatin print, 8 x 10 inches

I’ve embarked upon a new series of work that is camera-less and relies upon an enlarger’s lens to act as a magnifier. The prints have been created by manipulating materials in order to create interesting projections by the enlarger. I have been melting and cutting both exposed and unexposed film. I have created ‘negatives’ using organic material sandwiched between glass plates, or between layers of clear packing tape. These experiments are exciting and ongoing.

All of these works stem from a desire to find forms that are eternal and universal – the circles and various orbs suggest creation, destruction, portals – the magnification of the images and use of organic materials such as roots and pine needles suggests scientific method and/or microscopic views – some of the line work that involves horizontals takes inspiration from an Agnes Martin-esque aesthetic, but using organic elements, creates lines that are not all straight or horizontal – but rather bend and curve.

Chemical elements, heat, and light are the star stuff that was spewed out into space when our universe was created – and so too they create these objects now. Watching the way photographic materials reacts to heat, light, and chemistry is to watch the same forces at work. Some of these close-up details of melted film resemble star clusters or black holes, and the prints themselves are composed of bits of carbon and silver that originated from those first moments of creation.

- B.B.

After over a decade of work in the fine art gallery world, and a number of formative years studying and teaching at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, ME, Brendan currently works summers as a freelance documentary and portrait photographer, and spends winters working in the darkroom, experimenting with 19th and 20th century chemistry practices, and often combining these with 21 st century digital negatives. His work appears in a number of notable personal collections, as well as the permanent collections of the Portland Museum of Art and the University of New England.