These are collage works of negatives of photographed tattoos with negatives of flora and fauna. To make the camera-less negatives, I project a small object, a flower or a piece of seaweed, for example, onto negative film with my enlarger. I photograph people’s tattoos with a 4X5” camera and enlarge these negatives onto larger film also in the darkroom.
With the flora and fauna, I do not aim to produce cliche images, but to allow the shapes to form, both in focus and out of focus. It is a process of discovery.
Once I design the piece I wish to create, using multiple negatives of tattoos with negatives of flora and fauna, I paint the palladium emulsion on the hand made translucent Japanese gampi paper. Once the emulsion has dried, I place the negatives on it and top with glass. Placed in the sun, it can take minutes in the summer and even hours in the winter for the image to form.
Depending on my ideas for each work, I may expose the work again with other negatives or paint it with water colors. Each unique work is process driven. At each stage I decide how the work is communicating.