Untitled, 1997

Water is the inspiration for Adam Fuss's untitled work.  Made without a camera, like much of his work, this unique photogram captures a fleeting and ephemeral subject on light-sensitive paper and transforms it into something else: drops cascading into a tray of water become an abstract image of silvery concentric circles. Whether Fuss's cameraless images record snakes slithering through white powder, a child's christening gown transparent and glowing, or ghostly columns of smoke, they are at once familiar and strange. Using early photographic techniques, Fuss creates very modern, revelatory pictures.