new project and random chemigrams
I recently had the opportunity to acquire an instax wide grafflox back to go onto any 4x5 camera. The opportunity to play with the medium seemed interesting and so I went about it, to some degree of failure. Part of the challenge was that while the film is rated at 800iso, I prefer to work in long exposure, even for portraiture, and the medium has almost no flexibility beyond a second of exposure. That plus the very cumbersome process to focus and understand where the frame starts and ends had me frustrated. So instead, I rigged up my 4x5 pinhole camera (no locking back, so I used rubber bands) and have been enjoying creating a series of self portraits, mainly using flash to eliminate the issues above. The work has me excited and currently I am deeply immersed in it. For now, I am calling it Dissonance, but not sure if that is the title at the end of the stage. So far I have created 20 or so pieces that I am largely happy with (probably double that in throw aways) as well as a few that I think are really great. I am not sure where it ends, but I am riding the creative wave for now. Here is a glimpse into a few:
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Part of the experimentation with the process is that because the back is held on with rubber bands, when the instax is ejected the first time it got hung up and created scratches and destruction. I loved the effect and randomness it added, as well as the shock of colour on the black and white frames, and so I left them. I also added the mixed media - I have been watching and looking at a lot of Basquiat and Dash Snow and have been inspired by the rawness and graffiti-esqueness of their work and have crudely added some of that into mine with the mixed media.
Lastly, on something completely different, I had some expired photographic paper I was hoping to use for lith printing, but alas, it was even too fogged for this. So I made a few chemigrams the other day, and these ones were the best of the lot. There is some emotion in the randomness which is interesting to me.
Appreciate you taking the time to read this. Always appreciate feedback and support as well as any leads on things I should pay attention to that inspire you.
