Inverted black and white silver gelatin, landscape 8x12 inches. The photo is almost entirely white at the bottom and black at the top, concealing most elements. Centered to the left is the back of a floodlight rendered light gray contrasted on the black background, standing on an open cabinet with pipes and a radiator visible. Bottom right a large tripod seams to materialize, above it a window ac, and a row of windows; through which an exterior brick wall with three windows is visible in the black background.
How Do We Project:
Silver Gelatins
2022 // THE CLEMENTE, LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC [USA]
When I’m building my large multi-lensed camera obscura’s I always include a small informal darkroom to enable me to use it as a physical camera, producing unique silver gelatin prints. In this series, I explored exposures of the space and the rooftops across the studio, while also doing a dedicated series of exposures experimenting with ways of embedding my poetry within the photos. I achieved this in two distinct ways, 1) by printing the poems on acetate and placing them in front of the photo paper during the exposure; sometimes taping them directly onto the photo paper, and 2) by using a needle in the darkroom to write the poem directly into the emulsion by scratching it, most of these poems were constructed at the moment of writing making them train of thoughts. As I couldn’t see the words while writing them with the needle, it was difficult to write on lines, therefore I started writing in spirals, as it would be one continuous movement.
A series of the spiral poems has been published by Ranger Magazine, 2024.
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, multiple exposures, portrait 8x12 inches. Different elements overlap in the photo to create the composition. The photo is muted in tone and the top and right are almost entirely black. Coming through the darkness you can see a rooftop scene of mixed scaffolding, the parapet of the building is brick, and given the multiple exposures visible at different scales. Over it all are light small pane window frames and a poem placed in a non-linear composition, its exposure is soft and therefore difficult to read: where does the city end / and I begin / WE merge / it’s a reflection of ME / as I am of it / the city / exists in me as I in it / it is also a part of nature / not apart from it
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, multiple exposures, portrait 11x14 inches. The first impression is a chaotic collage of discrete elements, with three wide white bars cutting horizontally across the photo in the top bottom, and center. They organize a series of darker squares, which can be read to be window panes, through them a rooftop scene and a contemporary modular facade are visible, some parts are at a different scale and overlap the center white band suggesting they’re from another exposure. Watery running marks and fuzzy black/gray static are scattered throughout the image, making it vibrate in the visual field. At the bottom two tape marks are seen, from which a transparent sheet can be traced, it holds words of a poem with some parts almost illegible. at the bottom a word has been scratched into the paper upside down, it reads unfold and is underlined suggesting it’s the poem title. The poem is arranged into a shape the first four lines are aligned left then giving way to a few one-word lines aligned to the last line’s right edge and thicking in line length at the bottom again, moving between left and right alignment. The poem reads: to write myself closer / to me / unfolding / rather than describing / trust / what / words / arrives / see them / for what they are / messages send from within / yourself to yourself / listen to what you’re trying / to tell / rather than expecting that you already know
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, portrait 8x12 inches. Filling the frame of the photo on a black background are a series of white scaffoldings with soft fabrics hanging from them, overlapping at points creating different intensities of whiteness, almost ghost-like.
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, multiple exposures, landscape 11x14 inches. A bended field of black window squares overlap a soft scene of scaffolding, draped in netting. At the center of the photo is an open web, that reads as a chain linked fence. The white scaffolding seem to emerge out of the fully white bottom of the photo. Embedded in the composition are a few lines or words forming a small poem, scratched into the emulsion of the photo paper prior to the exposure and development, at the bottom right, is my signature. The poem reads: and often / I find myself / blank / just empty / not understanding / the interactions
Two inverted black and white silver gelatins, portrait each 8x12 inches. two sets of tape marks at the edges where the two photos meet indicate how they had been held together during the exposure, while the white diagonal lines at the top suggest they where placed at an angle two each other during the exposure. On the right paper, a large brick chimney appears, while the left side has a few abstract white blocks at the bottom, across the center of the composition, connecting the two pieces us a tall scaffold wrapped in netting. Each individual photo has words scratched into the surface prior to the exposure, reading: (left photo) and sometimes / I feel all / of my (right photo) frustration in / every joint / of my body
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, portrait 8x12 inches. A dark composition of mostly black space, with some gray elements at the bottom, including a large brick chimney and some undeterminable shapes, is cut through by a bright white cross from which lines of scaffolding and netting bleeds into the blackness.
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, landscape 11x14 inches. A big black sun shines from the center of the photo, leaving a trail of sun spots towards the lower left corner. On the left behind the sun is a bent wall of windows and furthest left is a white outline of a theater lamp on a pole. The right side of the photo is primarily gray, at the bottom right reflected in a small square mirror is the harmonica extension from an old-school lens at the bottom two other mirrors reflect the windows, but there read as black squares. Scratched into the surface in a spiral motion from the center out is written: I sometimes w on der just how much or little my language and I overlap.
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, multiple exposures, landscape 11x14 inches. The whole composition seems in motion, the surface has multiple organic marks, the central composition of scaffolding and a brick chimney vibrates, indicating that the paper was moved during the exposure. At the top, the same scene is repeated, at half scale and sharp, a doubling. At the bottom, a section of a main water pipe is visible in a gray square, twice. This seams to suggest they are seen in a mirror. Scratched into the surface in a spiral motion from the center out is written: and I can’t help but think that there’s just simply something about relations that I just don’t get a surface that’s missing or just always in the shadows
Inverted black and white silver gelatin, portrait 11x14 inches, first published in Ranger Magazine, 2024. Most of the image field is taken up by a large ladder, bleeding color at the edges. Shades of gray around and inside it can’t be fully read, allowing the ladder to hoover in the image plane. Scratched into the surface in a spiral motion from the center out is written: so at times I feel outside of my written symbolic spoken language and look to my own way of expressing my experience though the visual and hope that you will try to learn this language of mine as I’ve tried to speak yours
Three inverted black and white silver gelatins, composed in a circular movement around a joint center each 8x12 inches. The three photos have tape marks at two of their edges, indicating that they were all taped together into a three-dimensional composition during the exposure. The scene therefore is quite distorted in each of the photos. One photo shows scaffolding, over two large white swatches, the photo left of it, has a small section of scaffolding but then renders into three fields, black, medium gray, and light gray, the last photo below the two first has two gray fields, the window panes through the top one some graffiti marks are present and the bottom has rows of bricks. Each photo has a few lines of writing scratched into the surface prior to the exposure, reading: (photo 1) sometime / this thing / that is me / inside of me / just disappears (photo 2) and Im left / floating / not really understanding / what is up / down (photo 3) just trying / to / keep / breathing / how it hopefully / will bring me back / to myself