OPTOGRAPHIC OBJECTS (2021-Ongoing)
Mixed media from photographic ephemera and antique glass
Optographic Objects are studies in light, time and materials using experimental photographic processes. This body of work explores the ways in which materials, objects and places seem to hold memories in their molecular structures. It uses ephemera such as antique lenses, obsolete film formats, developing byproducts and other cameraless techniques to create strange landscapes and forms. It harks back to the early days of photography as a magic alchemy from which it was believed with the right chemical combinations it would be possible to capture spectres, souls and other apparitions, including Optograms - which were said to record the last image seen by the eye before death.
Following on from work such as The Light of Other Days (2021) and Shotska Reel (2022) and the lens experiments in the project Eyes of Time (2018-present), this body of work seeks to explore the threads that run from the molecules of materials and our cells to the matter of the cosmos, narratives telescoping through time and space and chemicals.
OPTOGRAMS
Giclée prints on crystal archive, inkjet collages on paper, antique lenses
2022-23
These images consist of macro shots of glass, cameraless photographs made from discarded/waste 35mm negatives, and collages on paper scratched into to create delicate lacey structures behind the glass.
Optograms were said to record the last image seen by the eye before death, and these objects are eyes, droplets, molecules and celestial bodies all at once. They represent an oscillation between material, subject and form, distorting the images through layers of light and time from the imperfections of the antique lenses, raising them from the flat plane into 3D.
THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS
Antique Glass, Resin, Wood
2021
The Light of Other Days is based on Bob Shaw’s concept of slow glass, through which light travels so slowly it holds memories in its molecular structure.
Commissioned as part of TRIPLE HARVEST: THE ARCHIVES exhibited at Fermynwoods Fineshade Wood, Summer 2021 alongside my commissioned film NEVERENDING JIGSAW (2020), and has been shown at 11-15 Gallery (2021), Folkestone UK, Transmutation (2023), London Alt Photo/Thanet Alt Photo/The Margate School, Margate UK, and Sapphire Goss: Analogue Uncanny (2023) UCA Brewery Tap Project Space, Folkestone UK
SLOW GLASS WINDOWS I&II
Photographic prints mounted on antique glass panes
2022
Cameraless photographs made from expired 35mm Kodachrome film, an obsolete format that can no longer be developed as its chemical process is highly toxic. Instead it is developed as a 'ghost film' in black and white - in this case in Caffenol-C, a developer made from coffee. It is unreliable and in this case the anti-halation layer forms strange cloud formations and night scenes. Another layer of time and materiality is added by the frame - made from antique window panes, some of which have been left blank to reveal the wall beneath.
Exhibitions:
Transmutation (2023), London Alt Photo/Thanet Alt Photo/The Margate School, Margate & Sapphire Goss: Analogue Uncanny (2023) UCA Brewery Tap Project Space, Folkestone UK
OPTOGRAPHIC OBJECTS: COPPER CHEMIGRAMS I-XV
Silver extracted from photographic fixer on copper sheets, wood
2022-23
Photograph/chemical painting hybrids made by applying exhausted waste photographic fixer onto copper sheets. The copper extracts the silver from the fixer meaning that it is safe to dispose of. It was painted on to create strange landscapes from the chemical reactions and verdegris.
Shown at Sapphire Goss: Analogue Uncanny (2023) UCA Brewery Tap Project Space, Folkestone UK
