Developing Possibilities
To make "Possibilities", I exploited radical darkroom processes and the constraints of my home-based darkroom to evoke and – to some degree, isolate and control – specific abstractions into the work.
To illuminate, by embracing the ambient light leaking onto the balcony, I was able to exploit the occurrence of fogging.[1] This was achieved by applying chemical treatments with sponge brushes and spray bottles – in specific sections and with deliberate gestures – while the print continued to develop. In doing so, I was able to have control – albeit marginal – over the material agency of the brush strokes and indexical painterly gestures introduced into the artwork.
Figure 1. “Possibilities” (detail), 2023
Footnotes
[1] Ambient light during the development stages causes fogging. Like weather fogging, photographic fogging affects the entire surface of the light-sensitive substrate – film or paper – with an overall blanket of tone. The grey tone thus overtakes the whites – or light areas – in the resulting prints (Figure 1). The longer the exposure – as with other photographic exposure techniques – the darker the overall tone.