Contemporary Photographers Reject the Camera for Chemical Alchemy

A growing number of contemporary photographers are abandoning digital tools and traditional cameras to explore early photographic processes rooted in chemistry. Artists like Alison Rossiter, whose work 'Expired 1919' (2023) is shown at Yossi Milo Gallery, experiment with expired photographic paper and light-sensitive materials without using a camera. This movement revives 18th- and 19th-century scientific experiments by figures such as German physicist Johann Heinrich Schulze, who imprinted letters onto glass using silver nitrate and sunlight, and English physicist Thomas Wedgwood, who attempted to fix images on leather and paper. These early pioneers focused on chemical permanence rather than optical devices. In an era where AI and digital editing erode public trust in photography as a record of reality, these artists embrace the medium's alchemical origins, creating unique, handmade images that challenge the notion of photographic truth.