Tracing Luminaries: Erika Blumenfeld Publication Release Reception

We are thrilled to have Erika Blumenfeld back at Island Press to celebrate the completion of her project, Tracing Luminaries, a portfolio of six prints housed in a custom folio. This project is the stunning result of our collaboration with Erika during her (remote) residency in the Spring of 2021 as the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist. Erika’s project honors the work of the women computers of the Harvard College Observatory whose marks and notations on photographic plates of the night sky have contributed in untold ways to our current understanding of the cosmos. Erika’s project brings to light the women’s contributions and returns their marks to the stars.

Tracing Luminaries was featured in the August issue of National Geographic and will be discussed in an essay by Eric Lutz, associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs at the Saint Louis Art Museum in the upcoming Island Press PROOF brochure about the project.