A 2021 Conversation about Photography with Robert Buelteman

Robert Buelteman is an artist whose fascination with transcendence is reflected in his photographs, which portray the universe as alive and life as mysterious and profound. Whether examining the grand landscape or inquiring into the design of plants, his print work is a powerful extraction of beauty and substance revealing unrecognized dimensions in the commonplace. In this in-depth conversation we will talk about cameraless, lensless, computerless photography. Robert's process is complex and dangerous. Currents are sent through objects that rest directly on a photographic plate. He had to construct a large sheet metal easel that is floated in a solution of liquid silicone. He also devised a way to add light sources to the process, in the form of xenon strobe, tungsten and fiber optics.