Berggruen Gallery is proud to present Western Wave: Vanessa Marsh & Joni Sternbach, an exhibition of photography by American artists Vanessa Marsh and Joni Sternbach. Western Wave will be on view from May 1 through June 19, 2025. The gallery will host a moderated artist panel on Thursday, May 1 at 4:30 PM as well as an opening reception for the artists from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.
Western Wave brings together two distinct approaches to alternative photographic processes, exploring themes of memory, landscape, and the passage of time through historical techniques. Marsh and Sternbach both embrace the physicality of their materials, using light and chemistry to create images that transcend mere representation. The exhibition features works from two of Marsh’s series, The Sun Beneath the Sky and Further to Fly, alongside Sternbach’s Surfland and Surfboard series.
Vanessa Marsh’s The Sun Beneath the Sky series consists of unique lumen photograms—cameraless photographic landscapes created by exposing silver gelatin paper to sunlight through multiple exposures and hand-cut paper masks. The resulting dreamlike compositions feature overlapping silhouettes of real mountain ranges from the Western United States, rendered in soft, pastel hues. These layered forms, while based on real topographies, are arranged in ways that move beyond naturalistic representation, examining the relationship between light, time, and terrain while prompting reflection on nature’s impermanence and humanity’s role in its transformation.
Further to Fly navigates deeply personal terrain, using tintype photograms to depict imagined desert landscapes. The series draws from painted illustrations based on reference images Marsh took during a profound period of transition in her life, reflecting both a meditation on loss and an exploration of the shifting Western landscape. The tintype process, historically associated with 19th-century photography and memento mori, underscores the delicate nature of memory and material.
Joni Sternbach’s Surfland and Surfboard series are extended bodies of portraits of surfers and their surfboards from around the world, created using the wet plate collodion process. One of photography’s oldest techniques, wet plate collodion dates back to the 1850s and involves coating a plate with a light-sensitive emulsion, exposing it while still wet, and immediately developing it on site. In Surfland, Sternbach reimagines this historic medium in a contemporary context, capturing present-day surfers through a 19th-century lens. Surfers are typically depicted in motion, but Sternbach’s work focuses on their stillness—captured through long exposures required by the wet plate collodion process. This stillness, contrasted with the typical dynamic nature of surfing, offers a contemplative study of presence and poise within the continuous movement of the ocean. The series serve as both sociological and historical documents, preserving cultures and communities that exist along the fringes of the coastline.
Unlike traditional photography, wet plate collodion requires the entire image-making process—coating, exposing, and developing—to be completed before the plate dries. Collodion can be applied to blackened metal (for a tintype) or glass to make an ambrotype or a negative. Working entirely on location, Sternbach uses a portable darkroom to develop each plate in the field. This hands-on process creates a unique collaboration between photographer and subject, as they watch the image gradually take shape. The result is an arresting series of portraits that capture the nostalgia of an antique medium while documenting contemporary surf culture. While Surfland, started in 2006, is a tintype project, the Surfboard series, begun in 2018 is made with 11 x 14-inch glass plate negatives that are either contact printed on silver gelatin paper or made large scale as dye sublimation prints. Tintypes are used sparingly in the series, adding depth to its diverse body of work.
The works in Western Wave share a visual language of serenity and ethereal beauty, yet they also carry an undercurrent of mystery and unease. Through various photographic processes, Marsh and Sternbach emphasize the tactile, ephemeral nature of their materials—where hand-poured emulsions, exposure times, and environmental factors leave visible traces of the artist’s hand. The exhibition explores memory, environmental change, and the passage of time, capturing landscapes and figures that feel both timeless and fleeting. By reviving and reinventing early photographic techniques, Marsh and Sternbach illuminate the tension between permanence and impermanence, past and present, inviting viewers to reflect on their own connections to place, memory, and the ever-changing natural world.
Vanessa Marsh (b. 1978, Seattle, Washington) is a Portland, Oregon based visual artist. She received her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2004. Marsh’s work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at venues including Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR, The San Jose Museum of Art in San Jose, CA, The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport, The Penumbra Foundation in New York, photoEye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Marsh has been the recipient of a Penland Winter Residency and Fellowship (2023), a Jentel Foundation Fellowship (2018), a Rayko Photo Center Residency (2014), a MacDowell Colony Fellowship (2007), and a Headlands Center for the Arts MFA Fellowship (2004). Marsh’s images are held in institutional collections including the San Jose Museum of Art, the San Francisco Art Commission, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.
Joni Sternbach (b. 1953, Bronx, New York) is a New York-based artist with an M.A. in Photography from New York University/International Center of Photography and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. She has taught at numerous institutions, including NYU and Cooper Union, and is a founding faculty member of the Penumbra Foundation, where she currently teaches and serves on the advisory board. Sternbach began exploring historic and alternative photographic processes in the early 1990s, which became a central part of her teaching during her 15-year tenure as an adjunct professor at NYU. Her work has been exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally, including in the landmark exhibition Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort at MoMA, and is held in public collections such as the High Museum, LACMA, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, MoPA, Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has received numerous grants and awards, including fellowships from MacDowell and NYFA, as well as the 2011 Clarence John Laughlin and 2010 Santo Foundation awards.
Western Wave: Vanessa Marsh & Joni Sternbach, May 1 – June 19, 2025. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and previews are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.