Spanning the medium’s history, Ecstatic Time: The Alchemy of Photography explores how photography transforms how we see and reshapes our understanding of time, perception, and reality.
While photographs are often associated with human vision, they also have the power to reveal, transform, and defamiliarize their subjects.
Ecstatic Time: The Alchemy of Photography celebrates the 20-year anniversary of the landmark Norton agreement between Phoenix Art Museum and the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in Tucson with a presentation of nearly 100 objects from the CCP’s collection, including unexpected treasures by canonical figures, captivating examples of process experimentation and images distinguished by puzzling or playful subject matter, demonstrating the breadth and inventiveness of creative photography.
Spanning nearly the full history of the medium from the 1860s to the present, Ecstatic Time places particular emphasis on early 20th-century works, with a focus on quirky and whimsical still lifes. Through four thematic sections, it examines photography’s complex relationship to time and vision through examples of flash photography, time-lapse imagery and astronomical photographs, and contemporary conceptual work. Collectively, the works evoke a cabinet of curiosities, underscoring photography’s capacity for visual alchemy and experimentation.
Ecstatic Time: The Alchemy of Photography is co-organized by Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography. The exhibition is curated by Emilia Mickevicius, PhD, the Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography.
All exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum are underwritten by the Phoenix Art Museum Exhibition Excellence Fund, founded by The Opatrny Family Foundation with additional major support provided by Joan Cremin.