Monday I finally had a pretty big and very exciting breakthrough with the Lumen prints I have been doing for the past four years.
Ever since I saw Jerry Burchfields Lumen prints four years ago, I’ve been following that same vein all along. I’ve never been truly satisfied with that, as it wasn’t truly my work. I might as well have been Burchfields’ apprentice. So I’ve been trying to find some way to spin the process in my own way. Add to that the pressure (it’s positive pressure) of coming up with a project for my thesis, and that desire to make my own Lumens has been even greater.
My friends Darren, Jon, and Scott have all given me suggestions; some I’ve tried, other’s I haven’t simply out of laziness. Two of the ideas one or the other of us had come up with during the past couple years were to use color paper, instead of the black and white that I have been using, and to try using film.
Until now, the largest pieces of film I’ve had were 5″x7″, and it’s very difficult creating decent compositions on something that small. I also never had access to color paper. Now that I’m in grad school, people have given me lots of new papers to try, including color paper, and 20″x24″ enlarging film.
Monday I decided to give them both a shot, and was very excited with the results to say the least (please forgive the imperfections; they’re just very crude, quick digital captures):
Film:
Kodak Supra II Color Paper:
I was thrilled with the results from both new media, but after seeing how transparent the film print went, I began to wonder at how they would be presented, if that was the direction I took. As the two prints were hanging to dry, the film was in front of the paper, and it hit me: combine the two. Here is what I got:
Film Overlaid on the Supra Print:
All this happened at about 7:00 p.m. or a little later, and until 12:00 a.m. my mind was still reeling from the excitement of just how beautiful each were separately, but how much more so when paired together.
I think the thing that excited me the most was the fact that this combination helped remove the strong reference to “plant.” They took on a fossilized character, as if a pre-historic squid, while attacking some other pre-historic, deep sea creature were instantly fossilized.
