The work of photographer Ellen Carey is the subject of this issue of MATTE Magazine, a periodical with a specific interest in queer issues, and often dedicated to one artist per publication. Carey, an American artist, presents a body of work representative of the modes through which she has been working since the 1970s, which she categorizes as either “Struck By Light” or “Photography Degree Zero.” These two concepts encapsulate Carey’s theories surrounding color, form, and practice within her lens-based work: “Stuck By Light” represents the artist’s photogram work, while images within “Photography Degree Zero” are made without a subject, or reference to one, using a large format Polaroid 20 x 24 camera. For Carey, photography is seen as process, process is subject, while color is both subject and object, all conceptual points explored by English photography writer and curator Charlotte Cotton in her included essay.
MATTE Magazine is a platform for new ideas in photography edited and published since 2010 by Matthew Leifheit.
