Birthday weekend, continued: California Photography Museum, Riverside

 CPM featured many exhibit spaces, a tri-level experience!

One exhibit spanned several rooms, with works from four female LatinX artists. 

One artist explored image "replacements." The two images here show multiple views of the same face.

Another series employed canvas overlays in various environments.  In each photo, she taken a live background, and hung a canvas image in it. 

For example, one background was a run-down alleyway.  She strung a colorful canvas image of a child's party scene across the back of the alleyway, bringing it to life.

I remember "Persona" by Ingmar Bergmann from the 60's! Two women "merged." The resulting image was discontinuous and counter-intuitive!

I found this artist's result equally impressive.

Another level of the museum chronicled the evolution of land cameras, from the first days of the camera boom.  

The incredible collection of cameras and manuals came from a SINGLE donor. What an amazing gift to us all.

 Here you're looking at a stereo camera from 1890!

A "wet-plate" camera, from the earliest days. The glass plate had to be wetted to activate the chemicals, before inserting it into the camera.  Then the image could be captured.

This made for a soggy experience- the wet chemicals would drip onto the bottom of the camera frame. It had to be made of very durable wood!

Eventually the "wet plate" method of image was replaced with a "dry plate." Less to lug along on photo expeditions!

 This is one of the best (and cheapest) cameras.  Note the glass plate and the sturdy frame the assembly is attached to!

The next challenges ahead: To capture images that wouldn't be limited to the size of the glass plate.

And to make cameras smaller and more portable!

And finally, continue to improve image quality.