Carte photographique de la lune, planche III.A (Photographic Chart of the Moon, plate III.A) Possibly 1902 - 1914

Charles Le Morvan made this photographic chart of the moon sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. What strikes me is its tactile quality. It’s a photograph, but it has the depth and texture of a painting. I wonder what Le Morvan thought as he looked through the lens, capturing these craters, these pock marks on the moon’s surface. Did he imagine them as brushstrokes, each one a deliberate mark in the grand composition of the cosmos? Did he see faces, figures, or abstract shapes in the shadows and light? Painters like Vija Celmins come to mind, who transformed photographs of the moon into exquisitely detailed drawings. This print makes me think about the act of translation, how an image can move across mediums, transforming from photograph to drawing to painting, each time revealing new possibilities, new ways of seeing and feeling.