When Erika Blumenfeld moved to Sante Fe, New Mexico, in 1994, she began to take photographs of her surroundings. When she realized that a photograph could not successfully re-create actual experience, she stopped to reconsider her approach. After experimenting with painting and printmaking, she realized that the medium she wanted to work with was light, and she returned to photography with a late-nineteenth-century camera. When light accidentally leaked into the camera and formed a gradated image, Blumenfeld discovered the ability to capture light over a period of time. For her “Light Recording” series, she developed her own cameras and processes that directly record the evocative and nuanced effects of light on photographic paper.

Label from Looking Out and Looking In: A Selection of Contemporary Photography, January 19–June 9, 2013