Ron Moultrie Saunders
Salt and Rope, 2018

Unique photogram—sepia-toned gelatin silver print, 20 x 16 inches
Unique, signed, verso
Framed
Courtesy of the artist
Estimated value: $2,100

Salt and Rope collages salt with parts of my body, which acknowledges one of the elements necessary to my existence, while the rope can have varied meanings to the viewer. Is the rope a life-saving device?

I create photograms: photographs that are made without the use of a camera. This 19th-century process has an immediacy, rawness, and truth that is seldom found in images created with a camera. I layer natural and man-made elements such as water, plants and rope on the surface of silver-based photographic paper. The paper is exposed to light from an enlarger to create a shadowy silhouette image.

About the Artist:
Ron Moultrie Saunders

Ron Moultrie Saunders, a co-founding member of the 3.9 Art Collective, is a San Francisco–based photographic artist and landscape architect. He is working on commissions for SouthEast Medical Clinic Expansion and two projects for BART—Market Street Canopies in San Francisco and 19th Street Station in Oakland.

His artwork is in the San Francisco Arts Commission Civic Art Collection for projects he completed: Bayview Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Laguna Honda Hospital, and the Public Utilities Commission's new headquarters in San Francisco. Saunders is also the recipient of two Individual Artist Grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission.

He was commissioned to create works for VMware, Inc., in Palo Alto, CA, and Dallas, TX, in 2013, and for The San Francisco Travel Association. His art has been exhibited throughout the US, including solo shows “The Secret Life of Plants” at San Francisco International Airport and Corden Potts Gallery, San Francisco, and group shows at Middlesex County College, NJ; “Exposed: Today’s Photography/ Yesterday’s Technology,” San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art; and “Measure of Time,” Oakland Museum of California at City Center. His work is published in several books, including Self Exposure: The Male Nude Self-Portrait, From Art to Landscape, and INPHA 3 (International Photography Annual).

He was an artist in residence at STAR (Shipyard Trust for the Arts) in the Hunters Point Shipyard in San Francisco. He received a Fellowship at Kala Art Institute, 2021–22. His studio is located at Minnesota Street Projects in San Francisco.

Website: ronmsaunders.com
Instagram: @ronmsaunders