Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Dora Somosi calls herself a visual wanderer who explores the intersection of the everyday and the sublime. The simple act of looking up at an expansive tree canopy or a spider-web of interwoven branches inspires her to take a photo, before transforming it into a large-scale handprinted cyanotype, drenched in captivating shades of blue, or subtly embroidered with intricate stitches, adding visual texture.
Prior to finding her footing in her artistic explorations, she spent a decade as the director of photography at GQ magazine, which entailed the constant juggle of photo shoots and deadlines. Then, however, her daughter’s health issues led Somosi to check in on her ever-busy work-life balance.
“The ground fell out from us,” Somosi shared. “It pushed me to realize I needed to do something else. I ended up spending a lot of time with my daughter getting outside, moving our bodies, hiking, and looking up. This idea of moving our bodies in nature and trying to be an example to her made me realize what I was trying to say with my art practice.”
Photography was a constant anchor in Somosi’s life, in both a creative practice and career. She studied art history in college, honed a deep love of developing film using darkroom methods, and worked early on with Magnum Photos.
“Before, I took tons of portraits, but it wasn’t until then that I had the ability to take the time to be in the landscape with her,” she said. “I realized what I wanted to say visually is: ‘How do we live in nature? How does that mirror our emotions and make us slow down and be okay, no matter what is going on around us?’ Our small insignificance makes us feel so huge.”
This inspiration translated into capturing abstract moments in nature and transforming them into hand-printed cyanotypes.
“The way I approach the cyanotypes process is [by pushing] what can be accomplished in the digital space,” Somosi explained. “I shoot digital, and I really like that, even though I know how to shoot film and print film and have been a darkroom printer for decades. But I love how environmentally friendly digital photography is.
“I love the process,” she continued. “I love combining it with this archival technique and the end piece translates like a darkroom process, but you can only achieve this because of digital advances.”
Somosi sees her work as straddling both the historical and the new. Her use of digital advances still gives nods to historical photo printing practices, but advancements have shaped her ability to stretch things further and produce large-scale imagery that maximizes the cyanotype look of the image.
For each piece, she uses paper coated with light-sensitive chemicals to create a photographic blueprint of the image. Somosi then uses large-scale negatives from her digital images. Once exposed to ultraviolet light, the image is etched into the paper, revealing the image in blue and white.
Artist Dora Somosi takes a break in her Brooklyn studio. Photo Courtesy Gilman Contemporary
She found a home for her first body of work thanks to encouragement from her dear friends.
“I have always put together other people’s art through magazines and curating,” she noted. “I have a really good friend who has this beautiful studio in our neighborhood, and we were talking about putting an art show together. It was friends who supported me from the very beginning; women helping other women do the thing they love.”
Somosi is showcasing her work at Ketchum’s Gilman Contemporary, this winter from January 16 through February 25. Since 2007, Gilman Contemporary, under the direction of owner and founder L’Anne Gilman, has brought countless innovative artists to the Wood River Valley with a focus on two-dimensional media and an emphasis on fine art photography.
“We are passionate about connecting people through art, creating meaningful experiences for longtime collectors as well as those discovering contemporary art for the first time,” said Beth Rush, assistant director of the gallery.
The show, “Alchemy of Memory” features two ongoing series, “By Her Side” and “Mending.” Somosi plans to visit Sun Valley for the show over Presidents’ Day Weekend (February 14-16).
“I was first drawn to Dora’s series ‘By Her Side,’ which celebrates women, artists, collectors, and thinkers whose voices still echo through the natural world,” said Gilman. “Her use of cyanotype and traditional photo printing feels classic, but she gives it a contemporary edge. The blue tones of the hand-printed cyanotypes paired with abstract trees have such intimacy and quiet power; they really pull you in.”
“By Her Side’”is the culmination of Somosi’s personal journey learning about women whom she admires. “It is a little chosen history,” she explained, “featuring artist, thinkers, poets, choreographers, ceramists, women that fascinated me.” After learning about each, she would then travel to where they once lived or where they had a studio space, find a tree that was still standing, and capture a photograph of it. Each image was transformed into her cyanotype works of art, and 25 of them were cloth bound in a book, “By Her Side,” which will be available at the gallery. The work, she says, is a portrait by proxy.
The second half of the exhibition features Somosi’s work in upcycling. “Her ‘Mending’ series pushes photography in new directions. “It’s about what a photograph can be, not just what it shows,” Gilman said.
During each process of print making, there were times when Somosi would be left with a slightly imperfect print. But she hung onto them. She decided to push the images further, giving them a second exposure and leaving a circular space to see the first exposure.
“In a lot of the ‘Mending’ work, you have this visible second exposure,” she said. “The outside is a darker blue, then you see the hints of the tree and a circle where it is a first exposure.” Then, drawing on inspiration from her Hungarian ancestry and memories of her grandmother embroidering clothing, she began adding touches of embroidery with natural dyes.
“With Mending, I am taking a photograph and rendering it unique,” Somosi explained. “With the ubiquity of social media, I am slowing down and making a singular image from a photograph, and it can’t be replicated.”