Portraits of  Photographic Chemicals

Silver Mirroring gelatin prints, 20x24 inch
2024 ongoing project

The imagery in my silver mirroring prints is formed by the patterns of crystallized photographic chemicals or the movements of the liquids. Photography is typically used as a tool to present external subjects, neglecting the most original and essential materials involved in its process, e.g. developer, fixative, silver, etc. My works invite a closer relationship with the essentials, making them visually prominent, enabling the medium to speak for itself, with the image content depicting the very materials that create it.

 

My artistic practice includes image-making by the alchemy of photography and the research into the phenomenon of silver mirroring degradation. I have developed a craft technique, Silver Mirroring Toning; it restores the shiny silver to the surface of silver gelatin materials. The process transforms Silver Mirroring from a type of photographic degradation into an aesthetic and iridescent effect, and even a protection layer for the analogue prints. It challenges traditional ideas about the relationship between artworks and degradation.

 

I focus on Silver Mirroring due to its unique metallic sheen that can only be fully perceived in person. While a properly processed silver gelatin print or film is only B&W without any visible trace of the metal, a silver mirroring print produces colourful sheens of the silver, based on light reflection, scattering and the viewing directions. By the technique, I aim to amplify the inherent metallic nature of the photographic material and bring silver- the base of analogue photography art- to the forefront as an artistic element.

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Silver Mirroring Film Sheets series
To view click here.