For Immediate Release
December 15, 2017
Contact: Dean Settle, 402-202-7549, topcarf@aol.com; Patricia Saldana, ps1130@msn.com, 402-416-1543
Saldaña to Exhibit “Reviving Acsinte” at the Metro Gallery
(Lincoln, Neb – Dec. 15, 2017) Digital art and photo compositing have become Patricia Saldaña’s passion. Once primarily a landscape photographer, she now makes composites of her own images and images in the public domain to create surreal and imaginative compositions that tell stories. Her latest project is an solo exhibition titled “Reviving Acsinte” to be shown at the Metro Gallery, 1316 N St., in Lincoln, Neb., during the month of January, 2018.
While researching images for her show, she came across the archived photographs of a Romanian World War I photographer, Costică Acsinte. Acsinte served in the Romanian Army as a volunteer war photographer and developed films for French reconnaissance missions. In 1930, after his discharge from the Army, he opened a studio called “Foto Spendid Acsinte” in Slobozia, Romania, working there until 1950 . Acsinte died in January of 1984.
Acsinte's approximately 5,000 film negatives on glass plates and sheet film negatives fell into the public domain in June of 1991. In 2013, Cezar Popescu, a Romanian lawyer and photography enthusiast undertook a project to digitize all of the remaining works of Acsinte, many of which are in various stages of degrading. The majority of the archives are in the custody of Lalomita County Museum in Slobozia, Romania. His images can also be found on Flickr.
“I feel that this is very much a collaboration with Costică Acsinte,” said Saldaña. "Although my artwork adds surreal elements to Acsinte’s photographs, I have tried to maintain the integrity of his work.” Saldaña adds color to the black and white images of Acsinte, and through the use of digital manipulation using Photoshop and other editing software tools she creates an entirely different look and story to the images.
Saldaña is the featured artist in January with the opening on First Friday, January 5, 3-7 p.m. The Metro Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.