Antique photographs gain a new kind of lively texture in this series, entitled Dare alla Luce. Canadian photographer Amy Friend collects the prints from a variety of sources and then blends the vintage image with hand-manipulated holes punched across the surface of the paper.
Friend purposefully alters each photo by deliberately placing tiny dots around, through, and on top of the old-fashioned subjects. In doing so, she changes the original meaning of the photograph and adds a lively energy that presents itself as rays of light shining through the aged paper and towards the viewer.
The smiling faces and portraits of the past are quickly transformed into strange figures covered in an otherworldly light. The artist explains, “In a somewhat playful and yet literal manner, I return the subject of the photographs back to the light, while simultaneously bringing them forward. The images are permanently altered; they are lost and reborn, hence the title, Dare alla Luce, an Italian term meaning, ‘to bring to the light,' in reference to birth.”
