Via Lactea
Via Lactea
By Scott Massey
Typically Massey’s work accentuates and amplifies natural phenomena, often heightened through artificial means or via slight manipulations, exploring notions of time and space, and the mutable connections between them.
In Via Lactea (above Glacier Lake) Massey deftly combines 171 narrow-field photographs of the night sky on the same strip of film, achieved by making minor adjustments to camera angle over a lengthy period of time. Even though the image is artificially constructed, the luminous pattern of the starry night-time sky retains its convincingly poetic expanse while throwing into question the veracity of the photographic image. Its blueness is much closer to that of a daytime sky and as such connects to the location whereby it greets passengers as they arrive or depart at the station. By linking notions of celestial navigation – wayfaring – to more contemporary means of travel, Via Lactea throws into flux a consideration of temporality and site.
Scott Massey lives and works in Vancouver. He studied photography at Emily Carr University of Art & Design. His work is in private and public collections including Visual Art Collection, Office of Foreign Affairs (Canada), the Rennie Collection, Vancouver and the Surrey Art Gallery.
Presented by the Contemporary Art Gallery in partnership with Canada Line Public Art Program – InTransit BC.
