Elements of Photography September 19, 2009

Inspired by the MCA's major exhibition, 'Take your time: Olafur Eliasson,' this collection-based photography exhibition quietly reflects on the presence and passage of time and the nature of perception. All of the photographs, and one video work, focus on the natural elements of light and water in capturing the natural world. The exhibition combines works by established figures of contemporary art, such as Hiroshi Sugimoto and his haunting series 'Time Exposed,' with emerging Chicago artists such as Melanie Schiff and Adam Ekberg, whose whimsical video work 'Disco ball in the woods' shows the movement of speckled light over a snow-covered forest. The exhibition also includes work by Luisa Lambri; Nathan Lerner, whose early formal experiments from the 1930s record the play of light across photosensitive materials; and one of Joseph Jachna's Wolf River photographs from the 1960s, which uses a slow shutter speed to present a stylized view of rushing water.