Virginia Inés Vergara creates images that emphasize their flatness through complex layering. Her intention is to make photographs that are perceived as more akin to a flat plane—specifically, a plane of glass. The multi-layered form of her photographs are mirrored in the form of her camera. The layered form of the camera—one camera made by combining three different cameras—makes reference to the subject matter, namely, the planes of glass through which we view the panoramas in natural history museums.

Vergara’s process is unusual: she sets up a large-format camera in front of a glassed-in nature diorama with a painted background. She then holds a Hasselblad camera in front of the viewfinder of the first camera so that she can see what “it” is seeing. The Hasselblad camera is now positioned to take a picture of what the large-format one is seeing. At this stage, with the Hasselblad at one remove from the scene, the scene looks more two-dimensional and the crosshairs of the target feature of the Hasselblad viewfinder become part of the photograph. She then adds a third camera that “looks into” the Hasselblad’s viewfinder (located on top of the camera) and this camera captures the crosshairs.

Virginia Inés Vergara’s work will be exhibited at Kunsthalle Galapagos in the Fall of 2013.