October Skies (Through sunset, slow dusk, and gathering dawn)
Natalie Hunter
October Skies (Through sunset, slow dusk, and gathering dawn)
2023
Archival pigment prints on baryta paper from 120mm negatives.
16" x 24"
24" x 36"
What does the sky feel like on your skin? Can we touch light and atmosphere in the same way we can touch the solid brick of a building or the skin of another person? Atmosphere is a kind of filter; dust particles, debris, clouds and pollution are trapped in the earths atmosphere. These materials filter sunlight and affect how we see the sky. Transforming it in washes of colour and subtle hues. Smoke from wild fires also creates this transformation. Captured throughout the fall months of 2023, when the wild fire season is strongest in North America, I captured the moods, nuances, and changes in the sky over an extended period of time using multiple exposures on single rolls of 120 mm film. Cinematic in nature I wound the film slowly through the camera while hand made colour filters passed over the lens. Similar to the atmosphere that filters sunlight in the sky, colour filters are used to separate frames and moments in time, blend disparate experiences, and question how images are made in our digitally saturated culture.
Natural sunlight is an integral element of this body of photographs, both in the making of the images and their subject matter. Relying on the immaterial staples of photography - light and time - I captured the sun as it moved across the sky unfolding through time using an analogue camera, light, and hand made colour filters. For me, the sky became a locator, and I found a renewed appreciation for sunlight as it affected my body and mind. Through my daily routine I found myself looking to the sky very often in times of anxiety, stress, and vulnerability. Our relationship to the sky is changing. The sky and its mutable nature can be a source of comfort and sublime wonder, but in recent years it has become an indicator of a constantly warming planet. Reflecting on the increasing intensity wild fire seasons in North America have on climate change, these photographs serve as a reminder of how vulnerable our atmosphere is, and just how volatile the sky can become.