Exploring the light movement and the studio space.
Capturing the light.
Using black and white photo paper, I have been experimenting with lumen printing, as I wanted to directly capture the light in the space. Depending on how long the paper is exposed, changes the colour variations dnd it also depends on the make and finish of paper. For the 8x10 images, the make is kentmere Luster finish and the smaller ones are 5x7 Ilford pearl Finish.
When the images are live the colours on the Kentmere Luster paper are vibrant and then when fixed they become bleached, but if they were left unfixed the colour would slowly dissipate too. This is something that i need to think about, If i were to leave the images live, would i want to replace them or let it become part of the work; coinciding with the idea of movement of light, how things are in a state of change, brings the audience attention to time and place.
The colours captured in these lumen prints are very consuming and the blend between the two colours of pink and purple become very alluring. The purple is where the intense light has hit the page and the pink is the shadowed area. In two of the images i experimented with my strips of perspex to see what effect it would have in carrying the light on the paper.
From studies and observations of the textures and materials in the studio, the 'pill' like shape has been used to create a stencil in framing the light. This shape has reoccurred as it was present in my project last year when i was looking at Cliftonville and the shutters of the shops took my eye. This idea of framing the world is seen throughout my work in the way I photograph, mainly use the frame of the phone screen to composition the photograph. It also plays with the idea's of layers and playing with positive and negative space.
Cloud Movement
Cyanotype
Exploring another medium that is light sensitive
I ask to collaborate with fellow student Sophie Lou who plays a lot with cyanotype and I wanted to use her knowledge in helping me capture light. From our collaboration it helped spark up our motivation again and Sophie said that from working with me and my interest in recording the light it has opened up her practice again as she was getting to focused and narrowed and is looking back at exploring the process of cyanotype again.
From the crit club, one comment was said about how the work is really looking at the basic elements of photography which is the light. From our experiments we now know we need to leave them for a lot longer in light as they washed out almost completely. The impact of leaving out longer will mean the shapes will change according to the light movement, and it will weaken and strengthen at different periods of the day.
The idea of recording the light movement has been an interest through my research in recording the studio and space. Peter Hofer was saying about the colours of the raw cyanotype being quite curious to look at, the lime green against the dark green, seems sci-fi. Interested in the idea of the work never being the same when looking at it, as the more time exposed the image will develop or blur out of the shape it was capturing once moved from location or the light source has disappeared.
These were the first experiments, capturing the light rays coming through the door. As we placed the work in an unconventional place, people were needing to get through and open the doors and so new shapes where starting to take place on the paper.
I like the idea of placing the work in a working environment, capturing the usage of that area, in this case the door way opening and closing, a layer effect will build up on the page.
White Project Space - Crit Club
When walking past the white project space, I'm always grabbed by the frame work of light coming from the windows. I've been wanting to capture this light and decided to play with cyanotype again. As crit club happens in this space, me and Sophie decided to place the work up and hour before to capture the light and have th work ready captured in the prints, we had a black bag to keep the work in to stop the light affecting it too much. This became part of the piece of revealing and hiding away again, but like ARTITS NAME who had to place her self in a black bag to set up her photograms.
From the crit, decided it would of been better to leave the work up and let the images change over the space of the crit. We were keeping them hidden, so we could test if the light source and time length exposed was long enough for the prints to be strong enough. Again the image washed away, and the live image looks more compelling than the fixed washed out one. The concept too of the image being live, works more.
In the photos below the image on the left is the live cyanotype and the image on the right is the image after being washed.
Light movements
Thinking about the photo paper and how different make and finishes will affect the outcome of lumen printing.
The paper below is Ilford and not Kentmere - the paper has turned blue, but when fixing it it did turn a purple colour.
Speaking to katie , Kentmere luster gives the most vibrant hues and that the older the paper more things might happen, have to look on amazon and eBay.
