CHUCK KELTON (b. Bronx, New York, 1952) is an American artist whose camera-less photographs explore the expressive possibilities of light, chemistry, and photographic materials. Trained as a photographer and master printer, Kelton earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Ohio University before establishing a distinguished career spanning more than three decades as a master black-and-white printer for artists including Ansel Adams, Danny Lyon, Saul Leiter, Lillian Bassman, Mary Ellen Mark, and Helen Levitt. Since the 1980s, he has operated Kelton Labs in New York and has taught photography through the International Center of Photography and Bard College. Drawing upon his deep technical knowledge of darkroom processes, Kelton creates unique chemigrams and photograms that transform photosensitive paper, light, and darkroom chemicals into evocative abstract compositions that often suggest landscapes, horizons, and atmospheric phenomena.

Working without cameras, lenses, or negatives, Kelton pushes photographic materials to their limits, combining traditional darkroom techniques with experimental processes involving toning agents such as gold chloride, selenium, and iron. His works balance control and chance, abstraction and representation, resulting in singular images that are both materially driven and emotionally resonant. Kelton has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions at venues including Mana Contemporary, Von Lintel Gallery, Sohn Fine Art, and the International Center of Photography. His work is held in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the International Center of Photography; the Morgan Library & Museum; the New York Public Library; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.