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Practicalities

If what we see could forget us half as easily
as it does itself — but for life we’ll not be rid
of the leaves’ fossils.

- Elizabeth Bishop
 

A friend once said that I, “Photograph invisible things, and can show you what they look like.” It’s true; my methods aren’t ruled by what I can see. My sympathies lie with the subtle ways a lens transforms a scene, in the latent potential of a negative and in what the chemical processes of the darkroom reveal in a developing image. These photographs are from an ongoing series titled Practicalities. With these images I look to unveil the sentiment, suggestion or specter lying just beneath the surface of a person, place or object. Each photograph is a gelatin silver print selectively bleached with potassium ferricyanide and split-toned in selenium and/or thiourea toner. This inherently aleatoric craft makes each print unique; they are artifacts of practice and practical experience. It’s not the seeing I care so very much about, but the beings seen and the gravity of their being seen again.
 

Each photograph is a unique gelatin silver print and is selectively bleached and split-toned in selenium and/or thiorea toner. Image size is approximately 7 inches on the shortest side.