The light leaks, sun flares, blurs and skewed chromatics in John Chiara's photographs go to show that several technical wrongs can make an expressive right. One of seven artists in the Getty's remarkable exhibition, "Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography," Chiara redefines conventional picture-making means to serve evocative, personal ends.
Based in San Francisco, he uses large cameras that he constructs himself, taping sheets of color photographic paper inside to make unique, direct positives. Translucent traces of the tape appear along the edges of most of his pictures, and the chemicals used in developing streak and slur across the surfaces.