Kolorbar Photo Series
Susan Larsen / Pat Collentine

The Kolorbar Photo Series grew out of a trip to S.E. Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park. The glaciers here are immense in size and the glacial ice is a distinct aquamarine blue. This color phenomenon is caused by the high density of the glacial ice. Later, when sharing the photos with friends, they expressed disbelieve the glaciers could actually be that intense blue color. So the following year when we returned to Alaska we brought a six-foot kolorbar and took photos with the kolorbar as reference for scale and color. The photos from this trip inspired us to use the kolorbar with a broader art context. In the printing industry kolorbars are used to adjust and control color for printed material. For us the kolorbar is a frame of reference for everything within the photo. It is a bench mark to juxtapose events and situations against. The kolorbar photos reveal the extraordinary within the ordinary.