Photographic Drawings
2006
photographic drawings
8 x 10, edition of 5
For these drawings, I devised a technique that combines drawing, digital imaging, and traditional photographic processes to produce the final image.
I began each piece with a digital image found online. On the computer, I worked from this image to create a line drawing, seen on the screen as black lines in a white field. I then inverted this drawing to get white lines on a black field, and printed it on transparent film at a size of 3 x 3 inches, essentially producing a cameraless film negative.
Taking this film negative to the darkroom, I made prints using traditional chemical photo techniques. Using the photo enlarger, I altered the focus and the exposure of the each drawing by a set amount. Because these images are made with light, strange and spectral effects occur where lines intersect or overlap. The tones have some of the uniformity of a shadow, but where the lines intersect they darken. This darkening lends a kind of x-ray quality to the images, as if one were seeing both across and through the object at once.
I find this process very satisfyingly backwards; it “devolves” the digitally created image back into an analog state. It combines the fluidity of drawing with the precision of the computer, and transposes them both to the photograph, creating a strange hybrid with its own unique qualities.
Box
Mug
Console TV
Saucepan
Lamp
Table
Loafer
Wingchair