Not Titled (#1-#84), 2020, from the “Ghost Light” project

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© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer W…
Not Titled (#1-#84), 2020, from the “Ghost Light” project
© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. Photo by John Bentham.
Artist/Maker (American, born 1960)
Date2020
MediumSilver gelatin prints
DimensionsOverall: 4 1/2 × 6 in. (11.4 × 15.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist. Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY.
Object number2024.7.9.1-84a
Not on view
DescriptionIn the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Bitner, a native New Yorker, walked the streets of her hometown with a small digital camera, visiting locations that rekindled personal memories. Here the works are displayed as postcards, evocative of messages sent from a faraway place. Shot in black and white, the images recall the architectural photography of Berenice Abbott who began documenting the modernization of New York City in the 1930s and Eugène Atget who photographed disappearing neighborhoods in fin-de-siècle Paris. The title of the series refers to the naked bulb left burning on center stage as a safety measure when a theater is completely dark. Bitner notes, “Its other function is superstitious, to light the way for ghosts said to inhabit virtually every theater.”
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Additional Details

Photography by David Revette.
Friture (Fry Shop)
Eugène Atget
Date: c. 1910, printed later
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 1982.11
© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer W…
4 ½.X+.MC, 2022, from the "Pointe" project, 2020–ongoing
Rhona Bitner
Date: 2022
Medium: Archival pigment print
Object number: 2024.7.1
Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI, October 29, 2008, from the series "Listen"
Grande Ballroom, Detroit, MI, October 29, 2008, from the series "Listen"
Rhona Bitner
Date: October 29, 2008 (printed 2013)
Medium: Chromogenic print mounted on aluminum
Object number: 2014.3.1
© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer W…
00-102-FF, 2000, from the "Circus" project, 1991-2001
Rhona Bitner
Date: 2000
Medium: Cibachrome print
Object number: 2024.7.2
© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer W…
99-107-SH, 1999, from the "Circus" project, 1991-2001
Rhona Bitner
Date: 1999
Medium: Cibachrome print
Object number: 2024.7.5
© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer W…
94-114-CNAC, 1994, from the "Circus" project, 1991-2001
Rhona Bitner
Date: 1994
Medium: Fujiflex print
Object number: 2024.7.4
© Rhona Bitner, ADAGP, Artists Rights Society, New York. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer W…
00-118-CG, 2000, from the "Circus" project, 1991-2001
Rhona Bitner
Date: 2000
Medium: Fujiflex print
Object number: 2024.7.3
© Candia Höfer, Köln / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Image courtesy of Sean Kelly, New York. For educati…
Teatro Comunale di Bologna I
Candida Höfer
Date: 2006
Medium: Chromogenic print
Object number: 2019.2
Photograph by John Bentham.
Scene from "Imoseyama onna teikin (An Example of Noble Womanhood, or The Teachings for Women)"
Toyokuni III
Date: 1852
Medium: Polychrome woodblock print on two sheets of paper
Object number: 1994.92
The Precocious Girl (Ochappii)
The Precocious Girl (Ochappii)
Kitagawa Utamaro
Date: c. 1802-1803
Medium: Nishiki-e color woodblock print on paper
Object number: 1996.15.38
Drive-in theater, Highway 81, Waco, Texas
Drive-in theater, Highway 81, Waco, Texas
Steve Fitch
Date: 1973
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2024.18.2
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. © R…
St. Andrews Hall, Detroit, MI, October 28, 2008, from the series "Listen"
Rhona Bitner
Date: October 28, 2008, printed 2013
Medium: Chromogenic print, mounted on aluminum
Object number: 2014.3.2