Pelle Crepin, from http://www.pellecrepin.com/ (Personal section)
In this photograph, Crepin demonstrates the notion of light as a trace. Using what appears to be a long exposure, Crepin transforms the street lights into diagonal rays emanating from their source. The bizarre lines of neon green and red in the background suggest the trace of the unexplainable and mysterious.
John Divola, from Zuma series (1977); http://www.divola.com/
In this case, the trace is in the form of abandoned objects left behind in an abandoned house. The objects offer a trace of the house’s residents interactions within their space.
Anthony Hernandez, from Landscapes for the Homeless (February 1996); http://unhoused.livejournal.com/18559.html
Like Divola, the traces here are objects and their interactions with space around them. The context of homelessness lends the objects and space more emotional weight and clearly makes them traces.
Tokohiro Sato, Respiration #161(1992); http://www.photoarts.com/gallery/SATO/satoexh.html
While Sato’s use of light is fascinating, I am more interested in Takuo Komatsuzaki’s interpretation of Sato’s work as an exploration of “constructed space and structures.” The traces of light serve as a measurement tool of sorts, allowing the viewer to examine the spaces in his photographs from a different perspective.
Filip Dujardin, from “Imaginary Architecture;” http://www.chazen.wisc.edu/exhibitions/index.asp
Sometimes, a trace does not have to be immediately obvious. Dujardin is an architectural photographer who decided to construct fantastical buildings by digitally piecing together elements of actual, existing architecture. Unlike Sato, who leaves traces of the fantastical in reality, Dujardin leaves traces of the real within an imaginary realm. He constructs his own reality out of a composition of the real.
Andy Goldsworthy, Spire—2008 work in Park Presidio, San Fransisco, CA.
http://www.presidio.gov/experiences/spire.htm
Goldsworthy’s sculpture/photography is literally environmental design; his constructions are traces of human handiwork on the natural environment. These traces are temporal by nature.
