Achroma
achroma
an exploration of perception and valuation through acts of restriction, compression and tension.
Work begins with a simple formal restriction: eliminate color. This limitation focuses attention on fundamental elements of composition, contrast, texture, pattern and structure. It also establishes an organizing principle based on a nine value grayscale (the range of tones from white to black) that is further visualized through the nonagon, a nine-sided figure.
These decisions compress and connect the work together to reveal a dynamic tension not only between black and white but also absence and presence. Ideally, it is with these elemental relationships that this work, as an exercise, encourages patient evaluation of what is there, what is not and what occurs in between.
All photography by Joshua Longbrake