On to create new worlds
Now for something a bit different, I see it almost as looking through a lens, through the void to a new world.
Cliche Verre - 4x5" negative exposed via micro explosions to a plate consisting of Carbon, cork, alcohol, steel and ink
Space, Time and Relativity
Tomorrows homework, to turn this explanation into an image ……. “The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in the absence of gravity. General relativity explains the law of gravitation and its relation to other forces of nature.”
Seems easy enough
Cliche Verre - 4x5” negative double exposed by fire (micro explosions) to a plate consisting of carbon, ink, alcohol, earth and film
Trying to imagine something from nothing ….
I am not as much creating Images of space but more creating imagined images of what’s beyond space. However the anchor of my own understanding, research and observations show, as I am still creating images influenced by the underlying context of what I have seen and read about space.
So I think the difficult thing when trying to re-imagine something is that you are using what you know as a base. So it influences and shows through the imagined idea, any new idea that is grounded in past ideas is somewhat corrupted or restrained by it predecessors.
Now the fun part is creating my own imagined ideas of time, I am not going to use images of clocks that’s just stupid, naive and cliché. So will time just be assumed in images of space? Which then assumes distance which then itself is a measurement of time? It becomes a pretty complicated idea, especially considering time is something we take for granted every day. Or maybe I am just making too much of it and should just crack on and see what happens eh?
That’s no moon …..
There is actually a lot that comes to mind when I look at this image. In particular about how organised and certain yet absolutely chaotic and unknown space really is. You have gravity keeping everything in a nice order, round (well ya know roundish) and tidy. While at the same time you have epic supernovas, impacts galore and implosions. The absolute rawness and drama of the violence of space in this near silent vacuum is amazing. It is about the time I made this image when I really started going down the rabbit hole of space and time theory …….. it’s a really, really deep hope. It is also when I started blowing up my negatives again ……
Cliche Verre - 4x5” Negative Exposed via micro explosions to a plate consisting of Carbon, ink, alcohol, cork and film
Stars in bloom…..
I think with any type of abstract work it takes a pinch of salt and imagination to get something from you. Often I think that is why artists give titles to work especially in abstract work, as an open door to their mind on that particular piece. For the work I have been posting over the past months and the coming, the theme is space and time. Now while I may or may not use titles (certainly not stars in bloom for this one, thats too cheesy) I often use headlines or statements just to shed some light on the dark abstraction and where my mind was while creating it.
Cliche Verre - 4x5” negative exposed to a plate consisting of carbon, alcohol, ink, cork and film
Eenie meenie miney mo …..
So I am really on the fence with this particular Image. At first I was certain I preferred the version on the left, which is actually the Negative version. Then I was going through my sketchbook doing cropping notes and I came across it’s Positive, and I was like man, now I am not sure. This happens allot for me since I like to see how each negative looks inverted when scanning, so it usually comes down to some fine minute detail I see that makes the image pop. I still think I am leaning towards the Negative version on the left though ……
Cliche Verre - 4x5” Negative exposed to plate consisting of carbon, ink, alcohol and film
Cosmic Waves
Right now my brain is so overloaded that it has gone blank, like trying to navigate through a thick fog in a field of pits. So till the fog clears I will enjoy sharing works in progress, enjoy.
Cliche Verre - 4x5” negative exposed to plate consisting of carbon, ink, cork and film
Interstellar Intrigue
Cliche Verre - 4x5” Negative exposed to plate fashioned with carbon, ink, alcohol, cork and film
Supernova …… goes pop
Here we have my first attempt at creating a “supernova” or really any type of spacial explosion. It’s interesting because when we see an image of a supernova through a telescope it’s just a tiny white dot …… boring. The amazing images you see from nasa and elsewhere are the aftermath really, taken by dozens of different telescopes (in many different ways) showing what remains from the massive explosion of the star which ultimately creates new life in its death.
Cliche Verre - 4x5” negative exposed to plate consisting of carbon, alcohol, ink and film
Petri Dish Nebula?
In reality I am going to most likely crop sections of this negative to print, I am just showing it as a whole for perspective at the moment. Thats the first hurdle to get over with this series I think, how not to just make a whole lot of micro biology looking images.
4x5” Negative - (Cliche Verre) - plate/template consisted of carbon, cork, alcohol and ink
Planet 626?
Ok so as I continue my "space and time" project I have left black holes behind ... for now. Now on to trying new ways and experimenting to create other ideas of the galaxy or what it could hold.
Planet 626? - 4x5" Negative exposed to a thing glass plate fashioned with ink, carbon, earth and film
A representation of 2020 …. from 1998
I have always liked Don Hertzfeldt since I saw Rejected over ten years ago along with his other shorts. For whatever reason, as my mind tends to wonder about when I am trying to sleep! It popped in my head that to me “Billy’s Balloon” is a perfect representation of 2020.
Digital darkroom blues….
Ok no pun intended btw ….. I really hate colour calibration, camera one ... camera two ..... camera one ….. camera two …… One on the right is the right profile but is blue/green, one on the left is different profile but comes out nice and black and white .... same paper .... ugh. Colour profiles and calibrations should be a fine science but it’s not and is a pain when you waste expensive paper/ink. This is why I like the real darkroom more ……. where I can waste expensive paper and chemistry on mistakes instead! …. so there!
Burning the daylight … ink?
Doesn’t really have the same ring to it does it? Anyways spent today arguing with a printer about colour correction while printing out test sheets for sketchbooks …. I feel like I am back in uni.
Spacial/cosmic values
Here is one of the last Images I created with the sole intent on creating my imagined version of a black hole. While it probably doesn’t quite work for the defining image of a black hole out of the 40+ I created, it definitely does have some “spacial/cosmic” value too it.
4x5” Negative exposed via fire (micro explosions) to custom plate composed of carbon, ink, alcohol and film
If seasons changed from week to week
So we had last week all week in the darkroom, lots of complete darkness for hours then light then back to dark and add a touch of red here and there. Next week we have excessive screen time, melting eye balls and plenty of headaches and never enough coffee. If seasons changed weekly I would have two one dark and one light back and forth week by week.
Is that what a photo looks like?
See I still take “normal” photos occasionally, if there is such a thing as a normal photo that is ….. Was trying out a couple new phone app’s for editing and ended up with liking Snapseed thanks for the recommendation John McDougall
The first of MANY hand crafted plates to come
Here we have one of my first Images created using a hand crafted glass plate. The "plate" consisted of glass layered with earth, carbon, alcohol and film, then exposed over a 4x5" negative using fire (micro explosions)
Work, practice and concept in motion pt 5
Now just how to get the images in my head onto film, that’s always the problem isn’t it though, how to get the image in your head out of lala land and into the physical. My current practice is camera-less but not entirely lens-less. An interesting though about it is that my images aren’t a representation of a physical or three dimensional scene. Whether of something outside or of an actual object but instead the image is being created and happening on the surface of the film. I knew I wanted to keep working directly with the film in as much of a tactile way as possible, but for this body of work I wanted more control so working in total darkness all the time had to go.
Time to let go of some hang ups, and in this case it was avoiding using cut outs or screens. When I say screens I mean graphic templates placed over the negatives then exposed to create the image. I was primarily avoiding doing this because I want and need the images to look natural or organic, not an obviously drawn out scene. This is when I came to discover Cliché Verre, this is a technique dating back to the 1850’s where you etch or paint onto a glass surface then expose it to photographic paper. A nice discovery since I had just started trying various techniques like this and I had never actual hear of Cliché Verre before.
Anyways I have come around to the idea, and for this project it works well. I can now create a “plate” (as I refer to them) in daylight then expose them over the negative. It grants the control I was looking for and without the worry of the lines and contours of a drawn scene, they look natural.
Failure for the win
Well I have been slacking on my writing, but have been steadily chipping away at my visual ideas in the darkroom. In the mean-time here is a continuation of my attempts at creating my ideal image of a black hole. This one did not work for that at all, but it did provide interesting results. Thats how it goes some work many don't, but you will often be surprised by the "duds"
4x5" negative exposed to earth, carbon and fire (micro explosions)