Hannah Rosales Reviews Helena Chapellín Wilson

Wilson was born in Caracas, Venezuela and received her BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 1976. She has a number of collections including The Art Institute of Chicago; the Illinois State Museum, Springfield; and The International Center of Photography in New York.

Her work encompasses images with figure, object and spatial relationships that take on moments of rhythm. While using the nineteenth century gum bichromate printing process, Wilson creates compositions based dreams, nature and the passage of time.

One photograph in the series depicts two hands clinging on to a tree trunk. Personally what I take away from this photograph is childhood. Often times as a child, I would climb trees. I also see this photograph as a human connection to nature and trees specifically.

In another photograph, I notice a theme of passage of time. The foggy effect seems to indicate a blur and fogginess of time and how fast time seems to pass by. A lot of times memories "fly by" and sometimes they can even be a blur.

Both photographs are very dreamlike and capture the essence of surreal-ness through the gum bichromate printing process.