When not working on a bigger art project, I like to try new techniques to find inspiration for future projects. It also helps me when I feel stuck or have a creative block. Allowing myself to experiment and play in my studio without expecting to create something spectacular gives me some great ideas and results.
Last summer, I started exploring different photographic techniques. Some of them have been around since the invention of photography. They all have in common that the picture is made without a camera but with light-sensitive paper, the sun and some other interesting materials. Because I liked the different results so much, I thought I would make a little series and show you the different results of my experiments.
For the first one, I bought a bunch of old and expired photo paper on eBay. Then I used the common chemicals for developing photographs in the darkroom to make marks on the paper. I varied developing times, fixing times, and how I applied the developer and fixer. Every photo paper - most of them were over fifty years old - would react a bit differently. Some of them created beautiful deep blacks, others interesting grey tones. The paper would get a slight pink tint when exposed to sunlight first. On a few papers little marks like fingerprints would appear in the development. It was all very exciting and fun, and I am planning to do a bigger project out of it.
So far, I made over hundred little of those photograms and with every new one I make I get more ideas what to do with them. The other day I found two little children books in a free library, which I used to give some of those photograms a home. You can see them in the video.
That is all from me this week. I hope you enjoyed this weeks newsletter. Please feel free to leave a comment. I really appreciate it.
And as always: Thank you for being here.
Susanne
PS: And if you haven’t yet, please consider to subscribe to my newsletter. It is for free!
Alternative Photography