Photography by Chris McCaw

Chris McCaw is a fine-art photographer who shoots with large-format cameras (8 x 10, 16 x 20, or 20 x 24 inch), which he builds himself. Sunburns, as the series is titled, are unique images made as McCaw’s camera lenses capture and intensify the sun’s rays, which often burn a path across the paper.
McCaw explains: "When the conditions are right, the burning goes all the way through the paper base. The subject of the photograph reverses through solarization, and the unique paper negative becomes a one-of-a-kind paper positive . . . not only is the resulting image a representation of the subject photographed, but the subject, the sun, is an active participant in the printmaking . . . both creating and destroying the resulting photograph."