My photographic working method is a synthesis of past and present, memory and imagination.  I carry an old wooden tripod and view camera, a lab coat and lengthy cable release. With the use of the historic process of cyanotype, I acknowledge nineteenth century naturalists John Herschel and Anna Atkins who used it to record their notes or specimens of nature. I return to familiar places or explore new ones with photographic equipment in the hope of claiming them.

In a past life, I worked in a cell biology lab for a researcher who insisted we never wear our lab coats out of doors. I imagine an alter ego, a doppelganger who is a scientist but in a very anachronistic way. He wears a lab coat outdoors never to wear it inside. His laboratory is nature and his body's senses are just the instruments to divine its wonders. Through a series of letters (done in cyanotype) to his colleagues he articulates his methodology, areas of interest and the subjectivity of his findings. Photographs of himself and photograms of his investigations allude to the methods of his research.

 
From my photographic struggles, the pleasure I descend to is a backwards glance through the eyes of an imagined naturalist. He sees in cyan what we have over looked, searching unlikely places at unlikely times, and asking questions about the wonder about which we have forgotten to ask.
 
-francis schanberger, 2005

 

contact-printed 4 x 5 inch cyanotype prints on 100% cellulose paper, mounted on 40x50 cm museum quality mat board, ready for framing, 375 Euros

contact-printed 8 x 10 inch cyanotype prints on 100% cellulose paper, mounted on 40x50 cm museum quality mat board, ready for framing, 450 Euros

 
Education

2000-02 The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Area: Photography, Degree: M.F.A.

1989-93 University of California, San Diego

Major: Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Degree: B.S.
 
Awards and Honors

2005 - Headlands Center for the Arts Residency

2003 - Individual Artist Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council

2002 - The Krappy Kamera Show, Soho Photo Gallery, NYC, First Place

1999 - Plastic Fantastic. E3 Gallery, NYC. Jury Award

1997 -  Student Exhibition. Hyde Gallery, San Diego, California.
           Museum of Photographic Arts Award
           John Vella Memorial Award
 
Solo Exhibitions

2005 - The Close-Up World of Dr. Frangst. Atelier pH7, Brussels

2003 - The Close-Up World of Dr. Frangst. Ohio Art League, Columbus

2002 -  Mis-Taken. Silver Image Gallery, Columbus, OH
           Home. Trumball Art Gallery, Warren, OH
           Sentimental Portraits. Alfred University, NY
 
Selected Group Exhibitions

2005 - Wild Places, Open Spaces. Highroad gallery, worthington, OH.

Authenticity of Memory. Houston Center for Photography.

2004 - OH+5 Biennial. The Dairy Barn Fine Arts Center, Athens OH.

Ohio Art League's Annual Spring Juried Exhibition, Springfield Museum of Art, OH.

Greater Columbus Arts Council, Business Arts Partnership Exhibition, Columbus OH.

2003 - Twelth Annual Juried Exhibition. Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla,CA.

Ohio Art League's Annual Fall Juried Show. Fort Hayes Shot

Tower Gallery, Columbus, OH

Sustaining Vision. Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle WA

Texas National. Nacogdoches, TX

All-Ohio Juried Exhibition. Pearl Conrad Gallery, Mansfield OH.

etc... till 1994

Curatorial Experience

2005 - Domestic Bliss. Bridgette Bogle at the Ohio Art League Gallery

1998 - Four Directions. Grove Gallery, La Jolla, CA

1995 - Yours Truly: Self-Portraits. Grove Gallery, La Jolla, CA
 
Photographic Works In Public Collections

Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

Museet for Fotokunst, Odensee, Denmark

University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine

 

francis schanberger
 11 w.weber Road, Apt.B · Columbus, OHIO · 43202
Phone: 614.282.9871 · email: Fvinyet@AOl.com