Radical Forms

Photographic Experimentation from the Ransom Center’s Collections

February 27, 2027 – July 18, 2027

This exhibition explores photographic experimentation from the medium’s inception in the nineteenth century to the present day, highlighting a dynamic throughline of radical inventions and reinventions. Experimental and alternative processes—those that diverge from traditional camera and darkroom procedures—have continually renewed photography’s potential over the last 200 years. While pioneering photographers established this lineage through groundbreaking early discoveries in optics and light-sensitive chemistry, contemporary artists are formulating new technical strategies of their own and revisiting historical methods with a desire to build upon—or disrupt—those foundations.

Various approaches to photographic production are featured in the exhibition, including double exposure and combination prints, photocollage and photomontage, and photograms and cyanotypes, among others. These selections offer a focused look at a compelling and expansive area of the history of photography, one that is grounded in tradition and change, risk and chance, and ephemerality and haptics. Consequently, the exhibition traces the shifts in technology that have taken place alongside innovations, and discontinuations, of photographic tools and materials. By bringing together historical and contemporary radical forms, the exhibition forges new connections in how artists have engaged with the possibilities of the photographic image.

Radical Forms: Photographic Experimentation from the Ransom Center’s Collections is organized by Dr. Christine Robinson, the Nancy Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson Curator of Photography.