Bryan Whitney‘s images use X-ray scans of everyday flora to examine nature from the inside out. This project is currently on display at the Griffin Museum of Photography’s exhibition Elemental Blues at the Griffin’s satellite gallery at Lafayette City Center from April 1st through June 30th. We had the fantastic opportunity to sit down and chat about his fascinating cyanotypes via email this week, and his responses are as follows.
Please join us on the following dates for an online conversation with the artists:
May 21st Panel: Sally Chapman, Julia Whitney Barnes, and Anna Leigh Clem.
May 28th Panel: Brett Windham, Bryan Whitney, and Cynthia Katz.
Bryan Whitney is a photographer and artist in New York City whose work involves experimental imaging techniques including x-rays, lensless imaging and alternative processes such as cyanotype. Whitney holds an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art and a BA in the Psychology of Art from University of Michigan. He has taught photography at Rutgers University and currently teaches at the International Center of Photography in New York City and the New York Botanical Garden. A recipient of a Fulbright Grant for lectures on American Photography he has exhibited across the United States and internationally. His work has appeared in magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Fortune, the New York Times, as well as being featured in books, posters and billboards. His X-ray botanical images have recently been acquired as a stamp designs by the US Postal Service.
Follow Bryan Whitney | Instagram: @temporarypedestal
As an X-ray artist, your work involves revealing the hidden intricacies of the natural world. Metaphorically and symbolically speaking, why does transparency reveal to you artistically?
Bryan Whitney: Symbolically and metaphorically, transparency represents an understanding of the tru nature of reality. We tend to perceive the world as composed of discrete objects including ourselves, yet energy flows continuously through all things—x-rays, radio waves, and more—hinting at a deeper unity. Transparency becomes a metaphor for this unseen, interconnected reality.
You’re using very technological techniques for your imaging process; where does your interest in science and botany come from, and how did you discover the world of x-ray photography?
BW: I discovered X-ray imaging through my wife who works as a conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where x-rays are used along with other scientific tools are used to study artworks. Intrigued by all forms of image-making, I received permission to experiment with unexpected objects. Over the past 20 years, I’ve continued this practice—now independently—using extra-large sheets of film (17 x 22”), developed by hand in trays. You might call it “X-tra large format.”
Addressing the material aspect of your work, you create your frames for your work. Considering your work is focused on the unknown interiors of objects, why focus on the outside of your work as well?
BW: For me, the artwork is more than an image—it’s a physical embodiment of ideas, emotions, and perceptions. Materials carry expressive weight through texture, color, and form, even in abstract work. I craft my blue frames from raw lumber to integrate fully with the cyanotypes, creating a unified whole—a Gesamtkunstwerk, as the Germans say.
Describe your photography process in the studio to make one of these prints as if you were in the studio with you.
BW: My botanical x-rays are made using a 1:1 imaging technique, akin to a photogram—no lens involved, and the film must match the object in size. After hand-developing and drying the film, I scan it and digitally adjust the image, carefully isolating the subject by using a digital pen, which is much like drawing. I then print an internegative on transparent film at the final print size. A high-quality watercolor sheet is coated with cyanotype solution using a Japanese hake brush, dried, and exposed under UV light in contact with the internegative. The image is developed in water which washes away the unexposed cyanotype solution and is dried. I mill, stain, and assemble hard maple frames, finishing with museum-grade UV-protective plexiglass.
Working in the Hudson Valley, have you had the opportunity or interest in working with the native flora in the region?
BW: Yes, I’ve used ferns from the Hudson Valley in my work. I often retreat to my off-grid cabins in the Catskills, which keep me closely connected to the local landscape and flora.
Some of your previous work has focused on portraiture-style photography rather than botany. How do you determine the subjects of your photographs, and what inspired you to work with the natural world?
BW: Like many artists the Covid time caused a realignment in my work. I was hiking everyday in the Catskills and started doing “portraits” of trees using a fisheye lens. I created a body of work called “Enchanted Forest” which I installed as a popup exhibition in a laundromat (!) and subsequently showed in a gallery. Fascinated by art history, I created “re-portraits” of Roman busts using a tilt-shift lens, and a series called“GAZE,” featuring thumbnail size19th-century tintypes enlarged onto fabric and installed in immersive circular form that you walked inside.
What piece is most important to you (in this collection) that you want to highlight/spotlight?
BW: The Lotus is a favorite—both for its symbolism and the tiny, Brueghel-like figures that many see dancing in its center. My botanical x-rays are not portraits of specific specimens; they serve as votive images, evoking the archetype of each plant.
Willow Simon (b. June 28th, 2005)
Willow Simon is a rising sophomore at Wesleyan University, currently majoring in English and History, and planning on minoring in Middle Eastern Studies. She specializes in journalism and creative writing and is passionate about working in audio.
Griffin Museum of Photography – Winchester, Massachusetts
The Griffin Museum @ Lafayette City Center Passageway – Boston, Massachusetts
