|
Tiny, mysteries from my backyard - they are one-of-a-kind
photograms from nature created solely by the sun.
I call them "Weathery Prints".
This process evolved from my need to stay
out of the hot, humid southern sun.
During those
months in Tennessee, I turned to reading about the
first photographic processes. From this I developed
my own process to capture and preserve florals on
silver gelatin paper.
The process works best if
the temperature and humidity are both in the high
90's. By laying objects on silver gelatin paper
of which I prefer an extreme warm tone paper base,
the flowers, sticks and whatever else I find on
the 3 acres around my house, are layed directly
on to the paper. From there, I spritz water every
so often down on to the paper. This creates the
brown splotches you see in the image giving it a
more natural look. These objects are left until
the paper is completely dark brown and the outline
of the objects is almost completely gone. From there
I process the image first by washing the print completely,
then using a very light bleaching process, the image
lightens just enough to place the paper into the
fixer. The fixer will lighten the image at least
a full stop if not close to two stops; it is here
that I needed at first, to get a feel for how far
or how far the image would lighten up, as I didn't
want it to disappear. Once I had establish this
point or "snatch point" as I call it,
I am safe to leave it in the fixer for the required
time, washing and sometimes toning the image in
a light selenium toner and then the final wash process.
|
Reproduction prints from my originals are
available for purchase.
Should you be intersted in an original, please
email Dee directly.
|
