CHRIS McCAW
Chris McCaw, born in 1971 in Daly City, California, is a photographer who focuses on distilling the intrinsic relationship between photography and the sun. Experimenting with photography from childhood, the artist is fascinated with the medium in all its iterations, working from an early age to document California’s skateboarding, zine, and punk scenes in the mid 1980s. While pursuing his BFA, he fell in love with the simplicity of large format cameras, and experimented vigorously with various printing processes and began building his own cameras in 1995.
Navigating between literalism and abstraction, McCaw has worked to both accurately capture our place in a cosmic landscape in motion, as well as using the graphic lines and dots burned by the sun in abstracted compositions. The artist equips his large format cameras with powerful lenses typically used for military surveillance. Instead of film, McCaw inserts expired fiber based gelatin silver photo paper directly into the camera. Pointing the lens at the sun, McCaw makes recordings ranging from thirty seconds to as long as 84 hours. The sun, intensified by the lens, scorches its path across the paper while creating a solarized image of the landscape or seascape below a direct positive image made in camera, without an intervening negative. Seeking to extend the duration of his photographs, McCaw has made four trips to the Arctic Circle in summer when the sun never sets to document the midnight sun. Throughout his work, these burned lines and holes are tangible traces of the act of making each photograph: marking time, recording location, mapping weather conditions and channeling light.
McCaw’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Massachusetts, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville Arkansas, Portland Art Museum in Oregon, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Somerset House in London in the United Kingdom. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in California, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Chrysler Art Museum in Norfolk Virginia, Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC, and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among many others. McCaw is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Andy Warhol Foundation's New Works Grant and Alternative Exposure Grant, as well as the Emerging Icon in Photography award from the George Eastman House. The artist lives and works in Pacifica, California.
SELECTED ARTWORKS
VIDEOS
Chris McCaw • In focus
Galerist Thierry Bigaignon presents the exhibition “Marking Time”.
Chris McCaw • Présentation
Chris McCaw shares his technical and artistic process.
Chris McCaw • Timelapse
Timelapse of Chris McCaw’s work with the Cirkus camera in Alaska.
PUBLICATIONS
SOLO SHOWS
2024 “Marking Time”, Bigaignon, Paris , France
2023 “Chris McCaw: Early Works”, Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, United States of America
2022 “Into the Sun”, Datz Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea
2016 “Direct Positive”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, United States of America
2012 “Marking Time”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, United States of America
2011 “Ride into the Sun”, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco,United States of America 2010 Sunburned, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, United States of America
2008 “New work from the Sunburn Project”, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, United States of America
2008 “Sunburn”, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, United States of America
2008 “Sunburns”, Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, United States of America
2003 “Powerhouse”, Family Farm and Travelogue, Image/Imatge Gallery, Orthez, France
GROUP SHOWS
2025 “La fabrique des éléments”, Galerie Capazza, Nançay, France
2025 “The pulse of life”, Daegu Photo Biennale #10, Daegu, South Korea
2025 Paris-Photo, Paris, France
2025 Atto 1/3 Sotto la luce, Bigaignon x Rhinoceros Gallery, Rome, 19 septembre - 18 novembre 2025
2025 “Ligne(s) de mire”, exposition hors-les-murs au Bonisson Art Center, Bigaignon, Rognes, France
2024 “The Awe of the Arctic”, New York Public Library, New York, United States of America
2023 “Elemental”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, United States of America
2023 “Touch the Sun”, Marshall Gallery, Santa Monica, United States of America
2023 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, United States of America
2022 “Time’s Relentless Melt”, Princeton University: Art on Hulfish, Princeton, United States of America
2021 “Solar Flare”, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand [curated by Ben Cauchi]
2021 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, Portland Art Museum, Portland, United States of America
2021 “Blaze Across the Firmament”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, United States of America
2020 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, United States of America
2020 “ONE: An Exhibition of Unique Objects”, Transformer Station, Cleveland, United States of America
2020 “Process and Invention: West Coast Photographers Expanding the Medium”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, United States of America
2020 “Image + Object”, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, United States of America
2020 “Photography to the Test of Abstraction”, FRAC Normandie Rouen, Rouen, France
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2019 “Fundamentals, Black Box Projects”, London, UK
2019 “Painting with Light”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
2019 “The Sheltering Sky”, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
2018 “Ansel Adams in Our Time”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2018 “10,000 Fahrenheit”, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
2018 “New Territory: Landscape Photography Today”, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2017 “Dark Room”, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY
2017 “Sea Views”, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 “Phenomenon”, Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA
2017 “The Basilisk”, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 “Low Fidelity: The Action of Light”, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
2016 “A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age”, George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
2016 “Retro-spective: Analog Photography in a Digital World”, MOCA, Jacksonville, FL
2016 “The Sun Placed in the Abyss”, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
2016 “Berkeley Eye: Perspectives on the Collection”, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film
2016 “Archive”, Berkeley, CA
2016 “I Am the Sun”, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2016 “Touch the Sky: Art and Astronomy”, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2016 “This is a Photograph”, Penland Gallery, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
2016 “Defying Darkness: Photography at Night”, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
2016 “Look Inside: New Photography Acquisitions”, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, TX
2015 “Photography and the Scientific Spirit”, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2015 “The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund”, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
2015 “Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography”, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2014 “Modern Alchemy: Experiments in Photography”, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2013 “Reality Check, Bakalar & Paine Galleries”, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
2013 “With a Trace: Photographs of Absence”, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2013 “Currents: Photographs from the Collection of Allen Thomas Jr.”, Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, NC
2013 “Landmark: The Fields of Photography”, Somerset House Trust, London, UK
2013 “Light Sensitive: Photographic Works from North Carolina Collections”, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC
2011 “Sun Works”, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2011 “Bending the Light”, Oakland International Airport Exhibition, Oakland, CA
2011 “Heavens: Photographs of the Sky and Cosmos”, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2011 “Seeing is Knowing: the Universe”, Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
2011 “Out of the Dark Room”, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2011 “Pure Photography, Post Production and Mixed Media”, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ California
2011 “Continued: New Approaches in West Coast Photography”, Smith Anderson North, San Anselmo, CA
2011 “EcoArchive: Meditations on Time and Nature”, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2010 “The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography”, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
2010 “Redisplay of the Photography Collection”, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
2010 “Past Forward: Marking Time in Recent Photography”, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 “Exposed: Today’s Photography/Yesterday’s Technology”, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, CA
2010 “Elemental”, photo-eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 “Edges of Light: Explorations of the Photographic Process”, ArtsBenicia, Benicia, CA
2010 “State of Mind: A California Invitational”, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA
2010 “An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area Part 2: The Future Lasts Forever”, SFCamerawork, San Francisco, CA
2010 “Burning Desire”, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, New York, NY
2009 “Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
2009 “The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography”, Aperture Gallery, NY
2009 “Transmutations”, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, NY
2009 “Landmark”, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2009 “Keeping Time”, Photographic Resource Center, Boston, MA
2008 “Landscape/Other”, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA
2008 “People & Places”, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC Each Sun, Togonon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2008 “Grace”, PEER Gallery, New York, NY
2008 “Mineral”, Hous Projects, New York, NY
2008 “Sunburn”, The Center for Contemporary Arts, Abilene, TX
2007 “Time Tracers”, Center of Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
2007 “Sunburn”, Houston Center of Photography, Houston, TX
2007 “Strange Weather”, David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, CA
2007 “Sunburn”, Burien Art Gallery, Burien, WA
2007 “Sunburns and Platinum Work”, Moab Art Works, Moab, UT
2007 “Lucky Day”, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2006 “Sunburned & Waterlogged”, Gallery of Urban Art, Oakland, CA
2006 “Eyewitness II”, UC Berkeley School of Journalism, Berkeley, CA
2006 “Platinum Places”, Watermark Fine Art, Houston, TX
2006 “Outmoded”, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
2006 “Lost Out West”, 19th & Union Gallery, Oakland, CA
2006 “Contemporary Landscape”, Baxter/Chang/Patri Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2006 “The Family Farm”, San Francisco International Airport Museum, CA
2005 “Romancing the Shadows”, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto, CA
2005 “Vital Signs”, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
2005 “The Family Farm”, Watermark Fine Art, Houston, TX
2005 “Travelogue”, Fusion Artspace, San Francisco, CA
2004 “Live Free or Die”, Freewheel, San Francisco, CA
2003 “Chris McCaw-American Photographs”, Image/Imatge Gallery, Orthez, France
2002 “Identity”, San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, CA
2001 “Vivid”, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
2000 “Timeless Light”, Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, OR
1999 “Portraits”, Bloom Studio, Oakland, CA
1998 “Road Trip Documents”, Spindler, San Francisco, CA
1995 “Graduate show”, Academy of Art, San Francisco, CA
1993 “Friends of the South Bay Punk Scene”, The Other Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
1991 “Infrared Views”, The Other Gallery, De Anza College, Cupertino, CA
DISTINCTIONS
2014 Emerging Icon in Photography, George Eastman House, International Museum of Film and Photography, Rochester, United States of America
2008 New Works Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation / SF Camerawork, San Francisco, United States of America
2007 Alternative Exposure Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation / Southern Exposure, San Francisco, United States of America
1996 Honorable Mention, Photo Metro Photography Contest Issue
1992 John Long Memorial Photography Scholarship, De Anza College, Cupertino, United States of America
COLLECTIONS
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, United States of America Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, United States of America
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, United States of America
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, United States of America Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, United States of America
Crocker Art Museum Sacramento, United States of America
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, United States of America
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography, Rochester, United States of America Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States of America
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, United States of America
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, United States of America
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States of America
Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, United States of America
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, United States of America
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, United States of America
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC National Gallery of Art, Washington, United States of America
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, United States of America
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, United States of America
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, United States of America
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, United States of America
Portland Art Museum, Portland, United States of America
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, United States of America
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, United States of America
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, United States of America
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, United States of America
University of Oregon, Eugene, United States of America
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, United States of America