comments : heliogenic works (1993–1997)


06.05

these one-of-a-kind light-sensitive works
dispensed with the emphatic figure-ground
relationships that characterized the portrait-
like cameraless works of 1991-1994. my intent
was to further obfuscate natural tendencies
to assign familiar meanings to the unfamiliar,
fugitive and unknown. the centralized focus
of the photograms was subverted by imprecise
geometric arrangements of line and tone
that uniformly "redistributed" meaning
through an ambiguously scaled space.
it was my intention to divert the attentive
gaze; to promote consideration of
the periphery and non-acute vision.

i created these heliogenic works using a
proprietary variant of the iron-silver salt
photoemulsion chemistry traditionally
associated with the van dyke brown print.
each piece was tray-developed and processed
for archival permanence in the manner
of conventional photographs. because
the photochemical response of the photo
emulsion was extremely slow, exposure
times varied from five minutes to eight
hours. stabilizing toners, high-quality
chemically neutralized mordanted supports,
and UV-protective coatings were used
throughout the series which is made
up of approximately thirty pieces.