One of Ivey Dahlstorm’s (C’19) photographs printed with platinum palladium. Photo courtesy of Dahlstorm.
By Rob Mohr
Staff Writer
Ivey Dahlstrom’s (C’19) senior art exhibit, For Walls, has concluded its run at the Carlos Gallery in the Nabit art building. The exhibit began on Tuesday, March 26 and remained for just under two weeks.
Dahlstrom calls the 92 photograph exhibit “a mixtape” of photographs from all over her life, from places like South Africa (where she studied abroad), France, Washington state, Vermont and California. According to her abstract, “This work is about the tensions and collisions between how something looks versus how it feels.”
Not limited to her time at Sewanee, the earliest photograph, titled “Watered Down,” comes from 2013. Dahlstrom is most proud of it because of the difficulties involved in printing it. The image was taken on a low quality point and shoot camera, she spent many hours editing it to make it high quality enough to print. The most recent photograph, titled “Jill Ivey,” is from January of this year.
The photographs, which were narrowed down from 5,000 to 468 and then the final 92, are printed through three different processes: silver gelatin, platinum palladium, and digital. The digital prints are printed on a special 90 percent bamboo paper: “The Hahnemüle bamboo paper is environmentally friendly and prints with a ‘3-dimensional image depth’” Dahlstrom enjoyed the opportunity to work with the paper, which she had never used before.
Many of the pieces focus on everyday objects and her relationship with them, which may be more significant than initially thought.
Dahlstrom is an art major with focuses on photography and sculpting. She began photography at age 14. Dahlstrom says that “photography is where I feel fluent as a creator and an individual.” She is currently preparing for Reclamation, an exhibit which will feature her photographs and sculptures along with work from other senior art majors.
Reclamation will run from April 19 until May 11. Dahlstrom will be talking about her work on April 26 in Convocation Hall at 9 a.m.