The surface of the photograph is the place where the image is located. It has been likened to a throughway to another world, as a liminal zone between viewer and viewed and as constituting an infinite space through which the world reveals itself.  The surface of a photograph is a space where something happens; but what defines that space and how may it be described?  This multifaceted project attempts to use various tactile methods, including rubbing, block printing and casting in order to trace out the parameters of “surface”.  This process involves various photographic media and contexts. In each case the original image is lost in replication. To address this, a brief textual description of the photograph is included alongside the copy  creating a tension between that which we can see and that which we know to be there.
 Ross Kelly, Four Children Laying on a Lawn Dressed in White, with Dog in Foreground (Installation View), 2016,  Triptych Composed of a Graphite Rubbing, Block Print and Wax Cast of the Surface of a Photograph,  5" x 7"
Ross Kelly, (Cover), 2016,  Graphite Rubbing of Each Page from a Found Photograph Album, Rebound and Assembled to Replicate the Original - 13" x 17" (35 pages)
Ross Kelly, Illuminated Manuscript #2 (Cover Detail), 2016,  Graphite Rubbing of Each Page from a Found Photograph Album, Rebound and Assembled to Replicate the Original - 13" x 17" (35 pages)
Ross Kelly, Illuminated Manuscript #2 (Inside Cover & Page 1), 2016,  Graphite Rubbing of Each Page from a Found Photograph Album, Rebound and Assembled to Replicate the Original - 13" x 17" (35 pages)
Ross Kelly, Illuminated Manuscript #2 (Page 16), 2016,  Graphite Rubbing of Each Page from a Found Photograph Album, Rebound and Assembled to Replicate the Original - 13" x 17" (35 pages)

Ross Kelly, Illuminated Manuscript #3 (Cover and Pages 12 & 13), 2017,  Graphite Rubbing of Each Page from a Found Photograph Album, Rebound and Assembled to Replicate the Original - 4" x 6" (28 pages)