Results Again....getting fascinated again..

After all that writing and reading I will admit I felt a little lost. I was struggling to find my way back into exposing again....sounds terrible.

All these years I found such an irreplaceable joy in photographing and printing in the darkroom. Developing film was such a wondrous moment and now I am finding this same feeling when revealing the images, when I have something to reveal, from these leaves. Its amazing. The tactile ability to touch, feel the sun beating on me as I set up and the feeling of the fruits, veggies, flowers in my hand or their dried remnants and change of color and shape. I am simply in amazement and wonder, this process has been such a self reflection of me and my life and it is liberating.

Alright so now the good stuff.... Here are some images of results. I wasnt sure I was going to get anything from this. I saw the condensation really take over and maybe I dont have my set up right for this type of work yet but I thought having some space and air to breathe helped the plants. So I cut up the veggies that were produced and the leaves that coincided with those particular vegetables and placed them on top of themselves basically. Now these veggies were fresh there for there was water in them still.....I should try a dried out veggie for this practice and see what it yields. I left it outside overnight for two nights and about two days. I really have to say I didnt expect much because of this type of natural reaction to the sun, moisture, etc. I figured the results would be minimal and that the sun in time would be able to wrap around what it was I was photographing and make for a poor image. What I found was different. Very organic and soft images of their own "self" on "themselves". This was beautiful to me. The squash did not work as well but I have left it outside still for it may need some more time.

Check them out......So to clarify it is a cucumber and pepper leaf. The pepper was obviously small and thin slice so it did not yield much but the cucumber really has a wonderful sense of light and shape in it.

So now I thought.....what about using the paper and then printing a leaf on top of it and then putting a piece of that vegetable on its own leaf..... So you see here down below the idea of the kohlrabi on its leaf on an anthotype coated paper with wine and beet. I still have some emulsions but have run out of watercolor paper and will be picking some up this weekend because Ill need to coat again. I just received my book on Anthotypes in the mail yesterday and was very excited to see all the test of flowers and fruits and vegetables that were experimented with and their remarks and some of their finding I found to be the same which makes me feel like Im on track. I will keep experimenting. The left of the kohlrabi you see red cabbage on two coated pieces of paper different sheets of paper and emulsions. I am trying to see what kind of images this will yield on the paper with the sun passing through. It looks like some good sun today so I am hoping to leave these out for the next couple days and get some quick results. 

Currently still building on the camera obscura and developing ideas on those levels. I have been emailing with Caleb Charland and getting ready for our next meet and it is clear that I should stick with this current process right now and not venture off too much into what the leaf can produce and all the other ideas that have come filtering through my mind. I should master this skill I am embarking on right now and should I need to I can revisit these ideas at a later time because I am starting to get too involved as I have done with my work in the past and moving away from this simple beauty I have discovered. I need to keep it simple and not loose my sight. This is a challenge for me not to overly examine or create a "stronger" more in depth meaning towards it all. 

Till next time....

The Sun

So here I have talked about death being my motivator but now after all this research and reading I have given myself it is life. I have chosen to use earth as my paper, as my resources for image making. A natural photographic process using the sun as my tool for exposure. This is the lifeline to life itself for everyone. So what is the sun? I watched this video today on the sun to better understand my use of this life for my exposures. In the meantime I am still keeping up with my philosophical readings and started reading last week The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus.

Veggies on their leaves

This is my current thought. I was looking at the garden yesterday and all the ideas of printing on leaves were floating through my head..... I thought, what if I printed the vegetables on their own leaves. So this is my attempt.  Left it out overnight the sun should be out today to help exposé these leaves. 

Scanning

Took a break from writing and did some quick scans of the exposures I have done and this is close ups of the detail that I was able to capture and Im feeling a couple house projects coming on in order to get ready for a mass exposure session. Keep in mind these were taken some a couple weeks and some over a month ago and there is still little to no fading that has happened on the leaves. I am starting to pay attention to the vein like quality in the leaves and am interested in this....

I was in Peterborough on Saturday. I made it a goal of mine to go back to Peterborough to explore a little more before the end of the summer. Went to the Sharon Gallery again and I was fascinated by a woman who marbles clay....The texture and delicacy of the work was profound. Something you just kept going back to look at and think, how? This is a technique a way I want to master my medium or use another....this is my true exploration is to pose that question to the viewer. Its not about the image anymore, its about the process and I am more than excited to be experimenting in this way as a photographer. While at the gallery I came across London Dupree's work who is a coworker of mine and acquaintance and I was again..intrigued by process because she was throwing these beautiful vessels and bowls and then covering them with multiple slips and leaves and then when dried, peeling them off and leaving the organic matter and textures on the pot. I will be sitting down with her to talk shop about the connection she has with nature and clay, what I too am seeking out now.

Going to try to finish writing....so that I can clear my mind and get back to play again. Feeling like Im starting to achieve something greater. I will be playing with these two thin leaves I have dried out to create my own negatives in the darkroom to print from. Maybe tomorrow night.

Writing papers...... trying to think of a leaf that has a root attached that would stay intact when pulled from the ground for my next experiment. Im also coming to the idea that if this is a process I enjoy, what happens in the winter? If I am using leaves that die, how can I continue to produce work when they are dead?