Currently on exhibit in the Cornish Alumni Gallery is a collection of pinhole photographs by Cornish Art alum Mark McLoughlin (1986). Check it out on the third floor of the Main Cornish Campus building from September 7 through December 15, 2023.

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 7, 2023, 5 – 9pm

Artist Statement

“The pinhole camera represents a retreat from the wealth of options available in modern photo technology. It is an exercise in restriction, a deliberate paring-down of the image-making process. Using a hand-built camera with paper as a negative returns the medium to its nascent period of simple light gathering.

Over the past several years I have constructed a variety of pinhole cameras in order to explore themes of time, memory, taxonomy, and process. The contact-print positives (100% of the paper negative size) in each series reveal an expansion of time, in direct opposition to the frozen moment of a modern snapshot. The overall softness of the pinhole format, combined with the slow exposure time of a paper negative, leads the viewer away from the “evidence” of sharp detail and into the realm of serendipity or nuance.

These photographs explore a way of seeing that relates to the broader theme of temporality: ways of using time as a marker in order to understand our place in its passing.”

All photographs in this exhibition are gelatin silver prints, hand-processed, toned, matted, and framed by the artist.

About the Artist

Mark McLoughlin is a Cornish alum who graduated with a BFA in Art in 1986. His artistic output spans 40 years and includes painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, installation, video, billboard vandalism and photography. His artworks have been featured in galleries and museums across the country and are included in many private and corporate collections. His photographic images can be seen in many art publications throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He describes his current lifestyle as a “modified hermitage”, free from iPhones and social media.