Digital technology is as elastic as taffy. In the hands of Jeremy Blake or local video honcho Peter Rose, the digital ride summersaults into the future. Then there’s photographer Alida Fish, whose digitally-altered photographs transport you back to a time of lace, doilies and Queen Victoria. Fish, showing new work at Schmidt-Dean, has long used layering techniques to merge disparate subject matter and force metaphorical connections. Past work combining humans and rock or statues was particularly powerful. “Plant Series” entwines fading flowers with ominous, wasted landscapes. Eco-message aside, the black and white toned prints have technological “wow” and a forlorn beauty. Better are Fish’s “Andante Series,” 12 small tintypes with nude models, some of them non-standard body types (read, large) posed against a deep, black void. The models pose, dance and spin in the vacuum of space, seemingly gravity-free. Like a new breed of fairies, the odd, wee humans are magic.
