Final

Over time with the advancement of modern technology, photography as an artist media has drastically changed. Once a process of pure chance, luck, skill and patience, photography is now more commonly seen as a digital art – quick and efficient. When thinking about these differences I questioned the integrity of each version of the media, and wanted to blur the boundary between traditional and new.  I shot the images in digital format and 35millimeter film and then developed the film by hand in the darkroom. I experimented with different developing techniques, mainly Solarization – a process that involves re-exposing the image to light in the developing process.  I chose this technique because I felt it closely resembled a digital editing technique that can be done easily in Photoshop by altering tonal levels. However, though it can be done easily in Photoshop, I feel the results I obtained in the darkroom were much more rewarding and organic. I then decided to take these hand-processed images and alter them in ways that would be incredibly difficult in the darkroom by using Photoshop to overlap other images and create variation in transparency. Through this series I deepened my understanding of the strengths and weakness in both digital and wet process photography, and found a pleasing balance between the two distinct variations of the media.

Variations in Solarization technique:

Producer Post 5

I’ve basically finished the project at this point- I’ve printed out all my images on 11×14 sheets and matted them for my final photography assignment as well. (Dan said that would be okay since I’ve put so much work into this series and it was through that class that I decided to combine the digital elements with the darkroom prints).

Here are the final images:

Do you like how they are laid out on the black background or would you prefer me to post them individually? (posting them this way was Julie’s suggestion). Basically my concept for this series is about experimenting with process and blurring the distinctions between digital and wet process photograph. The series progresses through the clarity of the figure as well as the technique involved. The first 2 images are digital compilations, where the figure is very clear and an obvious focus of the image. The 3rd image was shot in film and developed in the darkroom, and I used a less dramatic solarization effect to just get a subtle variation of tone. I overlaid a section of a digital image I took to blend it more with the first 2 images. The fourth image is film and developed in the darkroom with no digital manipulation, I just used a dramatic solarization effect. The fifth is also film and was printed in the darkroom, and I cleaned it up slightly with photoshop but didn’t use any overlays. The sixth is also film with the solarization effect so dramatic that the figure is harder to distinguish, and then I overlaid digital images to obscure it even more and add color. On the seventh I used a similar process as in the 6th but the figure is even more disguised.

Julie looked through my previous posts and saw these images and said she would like to see them included, not necessarily with the whole series but just to exemplify part of the solarization process:

All I really have to do now for the final week is write my artists statement to explain my concept and process and change the layout if you recommend it. I can talk to Dan about getting my prints back before next Wednesday if you’d like to see them in person.