Studio Sketches
This week I investigated the way different harsh chemicals interfere with and affect photographic prints. Starting with chemicals such as bleach and isopropyl alcohol I wanted to see if there where ways I could make the inks bleed or otherwise alter the printed material of the photo. The bleach worked wonders, altogether removing the printed ink on the satin paper or, if left to dry the bleach would leave a cracked residue on the surface of the photo, very similar to peeling paint.
I also wanted to experiment with material that more directly relate to the content within the image. I found this photograph of my father in my families’ archive. This image “pricked” my interest or in the words of Barthes it produced a certain Punctum, “That accident which pricks me” in this case the way my fathers shadow fell on the background was of particular intrigued me. I proceeded to scan and reprint this image in order to create an experimental print by treating the photographic image as if it was a piece of wood.
My first step was to sand the surface of the photo, which produced a wood grain like texture, and also caused the photo to become porous as to be more accommodating to the wood stain that I would then add. My initial experiment (Above) with wood stain was relatively unsuccessful, it did not produce the affect that I was looking for. Because of this I used a darker stain which took to the photograph much better than the lighter stain i used for the experiment.
Once the stain dries I will add a coat of polyurethane in order to finish the process.
I showed this image to a friend. She described it as focusing on, or bringing into perspective, the tactile quality of the photograph. This investigation of the materiality of the printed photograph was inspired by both the writing of Bizan and Sontag who both draw parallel between the embalming practices of the Egyptians and that of photographs. Both serve to immortalize the subject. We assume a photographs indexical qualities. That is, that they are representations of moments past, they represented the subject as they are, the two dimensional flattened image serves as best means to represent a subject. Culturally we have given photographs the task of memorial, they serve as the ultimate document describing the past. With this print I’m calling that notion into question. Let’s investigate the materiality of this vehicle which is taken for granted.
Lastly after discovering that bleach effectively erases the image by completely removing the pigment I wanted to experiment with this quality. I found an image in my archive that I had duplicate copies of. This is a photograph of me when I was a baby wearing a heart monitor because of frequent SIDS episodes I would have when I slept. I then scanned and re-printed them, this was so that I could get an understanding of the affect / possible outcomes before I committed to destroying an original image. I feel like this method has different outcomes / auras depending on the originality of the image I’m using. I’m curious to discuss the idea of ‘originality’ when it comes to printed photographs, what constitutes an ‘original’ image. Why do I hesitate to destroy an original print while I’m happy to destroy a copy? The image below is the outcome, and the video below that is documentation of the process. I’m planning on re-projecting the documentation video onto the faded image in order to see what it looks like. This reminds me of the concept of hauntology which we discussed last class.
