Artwork copyright Tod Gangler. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Tod Gangler. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Tod Gangler. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Tod Gangler. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Tod Gangler. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Greenlake, 40 Minutes After Sunset, 1981

Tod Gangler
(American, born 1953)

Location: Riverside Middle School, Chattaroy

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Greenlake, 40 Minutes After Sunset is part of a series of panoramas by photographer Tod Gangler. The series captures the bodies of water surrounding Seattle in the minutes before sunrise and after sunset. Gangler notes, “I have intended for the real subject of the picture to be nothing but space and light. The panorama format gives an approximation of the tremendous scale of the evening sky. All our houses and cars and streets are reduced to the smallest details on the far shore, especially when one steps back to take in the whole picture. Of course, one view cannot ever give us the whole picture, but it can suggest how we may start looking in order to begin to see a whole picture of the world for ourselves.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Riverside School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Seattle-based photographer Tod Gangler explores and manipulates light and color in urban landscapes, using long exposures and color carbon printing.

Gangler fell in love with photography at age six when his grandmother gave him a Kodak Brownie camera. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Connecticut College. In his twenties, Gangler moved to Paris on a fellowship and learned about early photography and mid-19th century color carbon printing. He moved to Seattle in 1979 and spent twenty years studying and mastering carbon printing.

tri-color picture
Gangler is one of only a handful of people in the world who still uses the very old and very labor intensive process of color carbon printing or tri-color printing. The process involves taking three separate black and white photos, each one through a separate color filter. Anything that moves through the exposure will create a subtle drift of color, almost like drawing on the picture. It takes him 5 days and 39 steps.
The final photo prints are cast layers of pigmented gelatin that have an incredible lushness.

And while today's photos fade and stain in a few years, Gangler's prints are meant to last. "They'll last as long as a painting by Rembrandt ", he said.