About the book: Speciation by Kent Krugh

In Kent Krugh’s Speciation, the photographer used a Linear Accelerator, a high-energy x-ray device, to photograph a diverse collection of cameras ranging from those made in the early 1900s, to mid-century modern design, to outdated models and mediums to contemporary digital cameras. He focused on over 160 cameras placed on a flat panel digital imager, each one photographed in three angles that expose the internal design of the camera and create a compressed view of the its components. His typology of these photographic tools show each camera’s respective design, whether simple or complex – the hinges, arms, gears, screws, flaps, springs, cogs, wheels, bellows. For the final photographs, Krugh created a negative by inverting the x-rays. Krugh shows the objects from many angles and compresses the cameras many layers into two-dimensional images that illustrates the complexity of each object.

The title of the project and book, Speciation, comes from Krugh’s idea the metaphor that, “Evolution has its limits, and so does the camera.” While the project was chronologically ordered, one can see the lineage and how one could not exist without some or all its predecessors. The artist has distilled the project down to sixty black, white and grays photographs that beautifully and analytically captures the compressed depth and function of the cameras.

About Kent Krugh
www.kentkrugh.com

Kent Krugh is a fine art photographer, living and working in Greater Cincinnati, OH. He holds a B.A. in Physics (1977) from Ohio Northern University and an MS in Radiological Physics (1978) from the University of Cincinnati. He began a serious study of photography, eventually attending workshops in alternative processes with Dan Burkholder and Craig Barber.

His work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions both national and international, at Cincinnati galleries and art centers; the Houston Center for Photography, TX; the Center for Fine Art Photography, Ft. Collins, CO; the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY; the Minneapolis Photo Center, MN; RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco, CA; in Guatemala City, Guatemala and Medellín, Colombia; and in four major festivals: the Fringe Festival in Cincinnati (2010); the FotoFest Biennal in Houston, TX (2012 and 2016); the FotoFocus Biennal (2012), Cincinnati, OH; and the Festival de la Luz (2016) Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors in both national and international print and portfolio competitions, including the “International Fine Art Photography Award”, Grand Prix de la Découverte, Jury Award of Merit, Experimental Category (2012). Krugh was a Photolucida Critical Mass Finalist in both 2012 and 2014. Krugh’s work is held in the collections of the Luz Austral Foundation, Buenos Aires; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; the Portland Art Museum; the Cincinnati Art Museum; the Cleveland Institute of Art, OH; the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, Hamilton, OH; and the Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX. He is the author of several books, including “Inside the Gate” (Blue Sky Books, Portland, OR, 2014) and “Angel Oak”, an Artist Book in 3 limited editions (2013). He has also taught workshops in Colombia, in collaboration with the Colegiatura Colombiana del Diseño and Centro Colombiano Americano, under the auspices of the Universidad de Antioquia.