Art Installations

Lisa Reddig: Waiting at ESP

This group of 24 gum bichromate photographs was taken with a Pinhole Camera the artist made from a model of Eastern State Penitentiary’s administration building. With that camera she photographed the light coming into the prisoners cells and falling across the walls, floors and detritus of the abandoned rooms.

Many steps along the way involve waiting for the right moment. Waiting for a day when sun will come through the small windows, waiting for the right time of day when the light is in the right place, waiting through all the steps of traditional photography to see a fully realized image. Just as the prisoners waited, day in and day out, with nothing to do but watch the sunlight move through their cells and contemplate the actions that put them here.

The pinhole camera and the printing on handmade paper make the images dark and abstract; removing any detail and leaving behind only the stark highlights and shadows. This visual quality, along with the small size of the prints, results in a subtle, almost invisible installation. They are inserted so naturally into the brackets above the doors of the cells that they become a part of the deteriorating architecture. In time, these images will start feeling the effects of the weather, just as Eastern State has.

Lisa Reddig received her BFA in Photography from the University of Arizona. It was there that she started making pinhole cameras, a process that has continued to this day. And along the way she has picked up other hands on photography techniques, such as handmade paper and gum bichromate printing. Lisa currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.