Openings Connecting: when a NEGATIVE is a positive

Thursday, September 15, 2011

when a NEGATIVE is a positive

gentle reminder
negatives are not what they seem
when softened with stillness

(that is the 5"x7"negative propped in the window...)

9 comments:

ValeriannaSeptember 15, 2011 at 10:32 AM
That's beautiful.
ReplyDelete
Replies
UnknownSeptember 15, 2011 at 4:16 PM
Very cool ... The backlight really adds depth to it. Is that printed on vellum? Gorgeous :)
ReplyDelete
Replies
nancy neva gaglianoSeptember 15, 2011 at 5:41 PM
that's the actual negative propped up in the window...i'll add that above. thanks kimmie and valerianna.
ReplyDelete
Replies
TeriSeptember 15, 2011 at 9:37 PM
It's funny to think of negatives since I mostly do everything digitally now. It gets sent right from my camera to my computer and sometimes to a storage device but I rarely use a negative at all. It is kind of a wonderful thing to look at and see. Everything is reversed...black becomes white when printed, white becomes black. A bit like life when you think about it and "The Shadow Effect" that I have been reading of late.
ReplyDelete
Replies
layersSeptember 15, 2011 at 9:43 PM
I think negatives like this are pretty scarce unless one works in the darkroom and I think you do - and placed in the window for the light to shine through really does make this a positive- shine a light- moment... and the crystals in front help too.
ReplyDelete
Replies
annell4September 16, 2011 at 4:47 AM
Negative or positive, sometimes it is hard to tell.
ReplyDelete
Replies
SethSeptember 16, 2011 at 6:30 AM
A beautiful vignette.
ReplyDelete
Replies
ooglebloopsSeptember 16, 2011 at 3:28 PM
Seth took the words right out of my mouth!! Love old negatives.....
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousSeptember 27, 2011 at 4:51 PM
What an amazing negative, I am surprised your photo is the actual one. Beautiful, and your words to ponder as well. Roxanne
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.