reach into the soil

A series of five darkroom contact prints. Custom made frames, charcoal stained maple, by Lauren Redican, at Redican Framing.

In an attempt to reduce the waste in my practice by removing the digital negative, and using the 120 film negative to print directly, I investigated contact prints. The photographs are 6cm square, and have such a rich tonal range. These photographs are darkroom printed by hand, and developed using caffenol, an alternative, home-made developer concocted using household ingredients that are readily made sustainable.

By removing any third party materials, and instead directly using the original and unique negative, and the darkroom paper it is printed upon, forms such a clear connection between the print and the landscape. There is an element of touch, and trace that always leads back to the landscape.

The five photographs chosen are broad representations of the whole body of work, that is shown within the artist book reach into the soil: settler colonisation and reciprocity with the land. This meant that including self-portraits in the smaller series was important, as it such a key part of way I interacted with the space in the making of this work. These five photographs represent the perspectives I exercised within the landscape, all the ways I learnt to look.

In working with such an intensely intimate scale, I’m asking a lot from the viewer, to move their body inward to physically engage with the prints. This effort intensifies the viewer's experience and connection to the land that is photographed. The five prints selected come together to give an overview of the collection of photographs inside the book.

I accompanies the photographs with a beautiful magnifying glass, itself dainty and petite too. This was to aid the act of looking, and encourage the viewer to get very close in order to really see within the photographs.

2022.