ARTIST STATEMENT + PROCESS

>>>>>>>>>>>>EXPLANAT ION
The process incorporated in these recent works is one where i am reaching across the history of photography, its inventions and developments, and crossbreeding them to give birth to a child which is an experience of many generations.

The SX70 was the starting point. It could have begun someplace else, with a normal colour or black and white negative for instance, but the inspiration of the SX70 has come about through its recent end of production.... here we are in the midst of an era ending, the extinction of a technique which was revolutionary. Its process has had its time come - en mass- like other processes in the history of photography and being rapidly replaced with its nemesis of instant imagery – the digital photo.

Next, my interest in large format photography stems from the labour involved in what it takes to produce an image, the physical and mental work when going about the production of something large in scale. This conflicts with my "shoot what I see" nature of the 35mm and even the SX70. I wanted to CRAFT what I saw, spend time examining the option of the pathways available to CRAFT an image. At the mercy of the chemical and light reactions involved in process I found the more processes involved, the more opportunity for error or delight. This is the risk. Not only that, but the each step closer to the primitive construction of an image resulted in one step closer to the ancestry of photography.

With this in mind the next step was to turn the SX70 into a negative. This brought forth digital technology. Which excited me - cause I needed this to use this in order to meet the methods of the past. Feeling I had to use it in this way, as a single STEP in creation but not the sole METHOD OF CREATION satisfied me greatly. I was linking a present historical process which is changing ways in which the mass works with imagery to what would be the next step - that of the old masters - the ancient processes.

Having formed my neg I now was able to return to the Vandykes and Cyanotypes and liquid emulsion operations which have each had their own day in the history of photography. Some are darkroom processed, others are produced under direct sunlight. The individual mixes the chemical ingredients - so one returns to the ALCHEMY of photography - something we have lost touch with. All of this makes for the image to have more resonance for the producer – through the birthing process.

The analogy I make is its like making carrot juice from scratch. Each step further back into its primitive form makes the experience even deeper. One can buy carrots from a supermarket, or an organic market, or a farmers market. Each step enriches the taste of the juice. Or one can pick their own carrots at a farm, or grow their own. If they are grown in a city allotment or have the chance to be grown in the country, each stage is a process which opens a cell within us. Awakens us to a grandeur experience.

This process of blending/ returning, for me, leaves me reunited with our art/science fathers.

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alternative processe

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