© Sharon Harper

Sharon Harper’s photographic interests lie at the intersection of technology and perception, science and art. She photographs phenomenon, particularly relating to the moon, stars and other celestial objects, that the eye cannot process, using both large-format cameras and 35mm cameras attached to telescopes. Her images record empirical evidence, and at the same time evoke a sense of wonder. Harper explains, “The camera can be seen as a metaphor for the pervasive presence of technology within the landscape, a presence that often interrupts our experience of the natural world. Here the camera creates possibilities for re-interpreting contemporary experience as it mediates and records, generating images that cannot be seen without it.” Her first monograph, From Above and Below, will be released next month by Radius Books.

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All photos © Sharon Harper/Courtesy of Galerie Roepke, Cologne and Rick Wester Fine Art, New York City. Above: Moon Studies and Star Scratches, No. 2. November 8, 2003. Greensboro, North Carolina.

NASA says that its twin probes are scheduled to arrive on the moon New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The data they collect may solve some of the mystery that remains about the lunar surface. The mission’s chief scientist, Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told the AP: ”We actually know more about Mars … than we do about our own moon.”

For her series Moon Studies and Star Scratches,  Sharon Harper photographed the moon over a period of days, weeks and months on a single sheet of film.  Harper says the camera is “a metaphor for the pervasive presence of technology within the landscape, a presence that often interrupts our experience of the natural world. The camera here, however, creates possibilities for re-interpreting contemporary experience as it mediates and records, generating images that cannot be seen without it. In the images from the series…the moon links our understanding of time in terms of a monthly calendar with a celestial realm where time is measured in light years.” Moon Studies and Star Scratches is featured in Daylight Magazine’s current issue, Cosmos. Harper’s newer series, Sun/Moon (Trying to See through a Telescope), is currently on view at Galerie Roepke in Cologne through January 21st.

Wishing you all new perspectives for 2012.

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