Going Platinum

Photographer Herb Ascherman is strictly old-school — and proud of it. In the era of the MySpace mirror shot and photo-phone captures, Ascherman presents a return to photography as painstaking art in Modern Vision, Classical Methods, opening today at the HeightsArts Gallery. The classical in the title refers to 19th-century methods for taking pictures, "before there was silver gelatin," says Ascherman.

The show features more than 80 platinum-based prints by seven local photographers. "The process lends itself to creativity," says Ascherman, who curates the exhibit. The technique hasn't changed much in 130 years: Negatives must be the exact size of the prints, and it takes more than two hours to develop just one image. Says Ascherman: "Every step is critical, from negative to exposure."
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 12-9 p.m.; Sundays, 1-5 p.m. Starts: June 9. Continues through July 22