Lakes and Reservoirs

Matthew began “Lakes and Reservoirs” by visiting bodies of water in the western United States. He would bring his camera with a couple of empty containers and take a photograph while collecting samples of water. Later, He would make a chromogenic print—or C-print, a wet chemical printing process on the brink of obsolescence. Over time, the tradition-laden chromogenic print of the lake or reservoir was then soaked in and degraded by the corresponding lake or reservoir’s water. As the water ate away at the layers of pigment and color inherent to the surface of the print, the depictive image of the lake becomes more and more abstracted, revealing the actual, concrete materials that make up the picture. After opening the door to decay and deterioration, He left the print out to dry. The remaining images are relics of this process.