SUNBURNED GSP#860 (Double Midnight, Galbraith Lake, Arctic Circle, Alaska) 2015. 25-12”x41” Unique Gelatin Silver Paper Negatives © Chris McCaw
This piece was made one year later in response to SUNBURNED GSP#786, again working with the undulating arctic summer sunlight. It was made in June when the sun never sets. Taking the inverse of #786, I placed the high midday sun in the middle of the composition. This also happens to be the biggest piece I have ever created, with a custom made 12”x41” camera sitting on a large heavy duty lazy susan.
25 panels—each measuring 12”x41”, a total of 25 feet of exposure—capture two mostly clear sequential midnights. Breaks in the line are from momentary rain and snow. Near noon, at the highest point, there was a terrible hail storm with crazy gusting winds. It was so stormy that my tarp flew off the camera and rain actually got into the film holder and dripped down the paper surface. It blew the camera out of position, and the sun angle got distorted.
As a collection of still images, it records the uncontrollable variation of weather during the course of exposing the 25 frames.