Carl E. Lewis
Updated: 23 hours ago
Djinn né Carl E. Lewis is an experimental abstract photographer who has exhibited at New York University Cooper Square Gallery, University of California at Santa Cruz, and included in the Curriculum Guide for the Museum of African American Heritage and Culture. Other achievements include exhibitions and catalogues at Smithsonian’s Anacostia, Brooklyn and Museum of Fine Arts Houston, History of Black Photographers book written by Dr. Deb Willis, Chair of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Board Member of the Andy Warhol Foundation, award winner for Reflections in Black.
The three most notable series of works by Carl Lewis include Hot Light, Lumiere Capturee, and Jinnagraphs. In Hot Light, the conceptual approach entails creating holographic images by capturing molten glass in long exposure with an analogue camera. As a result, these works are often mesmerizing and hallucinogenic which incorporates interdisciplinary elements of light design by using the molten glass as a form of mobile illumination. With references to Egypt, Indigenous symbolism, Masons, sacred geometry, and esoteric theologies, Carl Lewis’ forms are engaged in a process and execution which can be described as metaphysical, conveying ancient knowledge and esoteric customs.
In the Lumiere Capturee series, these works are laser-captured images. Carl Lewis is believed to be the first photographer to capture non-laboratory, in-concert laser imagery manipulated by a laserist with an analogue camera. Similar to the Hot Light series, Lumiere Capturee captures the essence of Carl Lewis’ references to ancient mysticism with linear and web-like patterns alluding to therianthropic symbolism in mythology. Specifically, the Lumiere Capturee series reflects a notion of how analogue processes can be used to capture futuristic or even celestial attributes in image-making. These ‘cosmic’ entities slice through space and time, splitting dimensions, and provoke the viewer to ruminate on metaphysical philosophy.
With the Jinnagraphs series, Carl Lewis created fluid abstract forms from antiquated technology which no longer exists in physical processes. The Jinnagraphs are based on cibachrome materials with a chemical process and dark room experimental applications. With these unusual images using an extinct practice, Carl Lewis creates forms which have erosive qualities, similar to the formations of rustic qualities on metallic material or the lead / copper sulfate buildup on a corrosive battery. Such depictions of erosion fits in with his themes on ancient knowledge and mysticism by creating forms which seem to have mystical properties based on the appearance of aging or rapid withering away naturality through elements of wind and water.
What we can formulate from Carl Lewis would be he is an experimental photographer with decades of experience who has been overlooked by the mainstream art world due to marginalization. His varied approaches of meticulous manipulation of obsolete materials, formulations in laser and light design, and creating holographic illusions with overtones in ancient mysticism and knowledge, Carl Lewis is a complex artist invoking philosophical ruminations on existentialist philosophy based on personal interpretations of ancient and indigenous symbolism and mythology. Such an approach creates a distinct narrative within the canon of abstract photography in art history. Also, in regard to abstraction as a whole, he gives purpose to celestial imagery beyond more familiar means of presentation, such as painting or digital design. Through linearity, holography, therianthropy, ancient symbolism, and vivid light design, Carl Lewis advances the purposes of image-making in abstract photography by instilling narrative-based references to morphological, metaphysical, and erosive attributes.
