Still Life with Lantern
platinum/palladium prints, mixed media
2004
A participant's interaction with the installation.
The original idea behind this installation was to deviate completely from standard silver printing (using only archaic and alternate processes) and see what occurs. The photographs were taken using a 4x5 view camera converted into a pinhole (with a 5-10 minute exposure). They were enlarged onto otho-litho negatives and contact printed using a platinum/palladium process. I dressed the models in non age-specific dress and removed most signs of time from their surroundings.
The resulting images were ghostly, imprecise portraits that seemed as relics from a distant past, though everyone in the images was present at the exhibition. The photographs were set up in installation in a way that seemed to tell some sort of archetypal story, something familiar and ancient.