Here is my statement about my work these days.
Tribute to Sabattier
I love the print. It’s simple for me: without the print there is no photography.
The small space of my darkroom is where I make statements, tell stories, inspire
and create cherished objects that can be collected, viewed and passed down to
future generations.
Personally I work in film, which includes historically significant printing processes such as silver and platinum palladium. For colour work I use tri-colour pigments over palladium.
These processes create beautiful and permanent art objects that I adore.
The Sabatier effect is created by flashing with light film or paper during
development.
It is one of the earliest phenomena in photography. The image tones all move to
middle grey and on the edges of objects a black or white line becomes evident.
Influences in this area include the artist Man Ray who perfected the technique
with Lee Miller, and Steichen as he made colour prints over palladium by
applying coloured pigment.
I control solarization in the darkroom. A black line around the subject denotes a
flash of controlled light during the film’s development; a white line, a controlled
flash of light during the print’s development.
I use chemical toning techniques to separate the highlights, midtones and
shadows from each other as well create multiple layers of complementary tones.
This is an ongoing obsession for me as I continuously look close to home or work
for objects of interest. Once I have secured these objects I photograph them with
simple studio lighting, process the negatives and start manipulating the film in the
darkroom.
My aim is to create a larger body of work that memorializes ordinary consumer
products that are recycled, put away, or typically given to us by others.
The prints are available in editions of seven in either Silver Gelatin or Platinum
Palladium with applied colour.
These images constitute my modest documentation of our society’s consumer
processes.
