Above & Below

"The photographs in Above & Below present variations on a single theme: light entering darkness. Specifically, this work portrays the act of illumination in the context of cavernous spaces that serve as archetypes of points of origin. To create the images, I constructed dioramas of underwater caves and photographed them in a dark room using a pinhole camera. The result is a series of primordial images that produce illusions of scale in a dialectic between the subject and the means of apprehending or recording it."  - Noah Doely

Untitled #9 from the series Above & Below, 2014 (pinhole photograph) archival pigment print on fiber-based paper, 40 x 60 inches

Untitled #9 from the series Above & Below, 2014 (pinhole photograph) archival pigment print on fiber-based paper, 40 x 60 inches

Untitled #1 from the series Above & Below, 2013 (pinhole photograph) archival pigment print on fiber-based paper, 20 x 35 inches

Untitled #1 from the series Above & Below, 2013 (pinhole photograph) archival pigment print on fiber-based paper, 20 x 35 inches

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By the Light, Installation View, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego California, November 2013

By the Light, Installation View, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego California, November 2013

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Noah Doely (b. 1982, Golden Valley, Minnesota) works across various media, primarily in photography, sculpture, and video. He received a BFA from the University of Northern Iowa and an MFA from the University of California, San Diego. He has exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such as Steve Turner Contemporary (Los Angeles), The San Diego Museum of Art, Locust Projects (Miami), The Cornell Fine Arts Museum (Winter Park), Viafarini (Milan, Italy), Seattle Center on Contemporary Art, and the Des Moines Art Center. Doely has been awarded fellowships and residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The MacDowell Colony, The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. His work has appeared in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Juxtapoz Magazine, and Burnaway Magazine. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Northern Iowa.