The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received either a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions.  Chris Losee’s  cyanotype on glass plate, Reflection, received the Directors’ Award in the unique: alternative processes exhibition juried by DorRae Stevens, Kevin Tully and Amanda Smith.  Chris’ exhibition I Am Nearer to You Than You Imagine is discussed in this GalleryTalk.

Artist Statement

“My photographs can be thought of as unfinished narratives, offering brief glimpses that form part of a larger story. They depict places we might visit in dreams or the imagination, offering a gateway into spaces that may (or may not) exist in the past, present or future…or perhaps all at the same time. Like half-remembered visions, they conjure a response mingling familiarity and unease.

Many of these images consider the fragility of natural objects, and their connection to the human experience. Others are re-imagined landscapes in which beautiful scenes may be tinged with anxiety. My most recent work sparks a dialog between past and present: These photo objects present images from long ago that overlap with contemporary scenes, suggesting subtle connections and the possibility of transformation.

I use several different 19th century photographic processes in creating this work, including salted paper, cyanotype, and gun dichromate. Because each print is hand-made, no two can ever be exactly alike. I feel the unique qualities of these processes resonate with the images themselves, allowing them to exist outside of a definite moment in time and space.”

Chris Losee
October, 2025

Bio

As a suburban teenager, Chris Losee began making black-and-white prints in the basement fallout shelter of his parents’ home. He pursued academics in college in Washington, D.C., but was drawn back to image making, earning an MFA in photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. There he began experimenting with alternative processes, including Kwik-Prints (a proprietary gum bichromate process), under the tutelage of Bea Nettles.

Later, he worked as a photographer and art director in New York City, but paused image-making when digital technology became ascendant. In 1996, Losee moved to the Hudson Valley of New York State and started a sustainable farming enterprise and a family—the subject of a memoir he co-authored called Stronger Than Dirt (Crown/Random House, 2003). Once again, however, he was drawn back to analog photography, and he began to connect with people creating hand-made images.

In 2018, at the George Eastman Museum, Mark Osterman taught him the historical process of salted paper printing, and Nick Brandreth showed him how properly made digital negatives could produce fine prints. In 2019, Brenton Hamilton at Maine Media Workshops guided him in tri-color gum bichromate printing. Rediscovering these processes has led him to become once again deeply involved in the practice of photography. Since that time, he has continued to explore the image-making possibilities that handmade photography offers.

Chris Losee’s artwork has been featured in several publications, including Direct Art and The Hand magazines. A few of his recent shows include a solo exhibition, The Absent Hours, at Locust Grove Estate (Poughkeepsie, NY), and the group shows Made in New York (Auburn, NY), The Still(ed) Life (Silver City, NM), By Hand: Alternative Processes (Abilene, TX), Contemporary Photography (Providence, RI), Unique: Alternative Processes 2025 (Johnson City, Texas) and Dreams and Imagined Realities (Middlebury, Vermont).

link to online exhibition