Teaching Model from Chair Factory, St. Gabriel, Louisiana 25 - 1999

Deborah Luster made this ambrotype, Teaching Model from Chair Factory, St. Gabriel, Louisiana, through a photographic process. This feels very much like a painting, with its monochrome palette and use of light. There is a very immediate and tactile sense to the piece. A hand is reaching into the frame to caress a miniature chair. I want to touch it too. It feels very intimate. The hand's presence, a body coming into the frame, recalls Francesca Woodman’s use of her own body in her work. The scratches on the surface also highlight the image as an object. This highlights the art as something made, which allows the viewer to engage with how meaning is constructed. This piece is like a small poem, and like a poem, it resonates long after you have left it.