Process Statement

All work is photography based, originating as black-and-white film images, which were printed in the traditional photo-chemical darkroom. Each image was transformed using alternative darkroom/photography processes--except for the Digital images, which were transformed digitally, and the Black-and-White images which were printed classically.

Most of the Handcolored and the Alternative images were exposed with black-and-white infrared film, which lends a dreamy mystical glow. Various darkroom and photographic processes were used with the Handcolored images including: handcoloring, polaroid transfers, liquid emulsion, and/or print toning.

A chromoskedasic bleach-painting chemical darkroom technique known as “bleach-and-redevelop” was used with the Alternative images. This process--which includes pre-fix bleaching, redevelopment, chemical fogging, and solarization--generates subtle tones and colors while printing on black-and-white photographic paper. Each individual print becomes unique in colorization and spontaneous effects. The bleaching erodes the detail of “surface reality”--making subjects appear to float in time and space—and extemporaneous markings engender spontaneously new and mystical image content.

I have used these processes to transform and transmute outer-world reality (which photography is so good at recording) and to evoke the dreamlike mystical realities I wish to portray….which cannot be photographed literally.