FORMS AND RECORDS BW NO. 8

Long invested in the history and making of photographic abstraction, Doug Fogelson’s current series pays tribute to Chicago’s Institute of Design (now known as the Illinois Institute of Technology), which was established in 1937 and produced some of the earliest innovators in the field of photography. Working in the school’s original darkroom in the basement of the Mies van der Rohe designed Crown Hall building, these prints are the last works ever created in the darkroom before it was lost to remodeling. Fogelson produces photograms using vinyl records, plastic geometric forms, and architectural models, which he finds in the dumpster after having been discarded by current IIT students. Through a retro color palette, Fogelson channels how Chicago’s history of photography and design are indebted to the legacy of the Institute of Design.