Our triptych piece is done and we should be getting the 66x28” print back tomorrow morning.

On the left is one of my negatives from the photoshoot. It was my first time using an orthochromatic film (Kodak 4125), one that was old and possibly water damaged, and with very little information on variations in development. Regardless, we developed for 5 mins and got thin negatives then developed the rest at 10 minutes. The negatives are beautiful, this low-res scan really doesn’t do the film nor the intimate textures of the mushrooms and leaves any justice. Perhaps sometime over the Summer I will scan them all properly and show them. For now they simply didn’t work with the chemigram process and now they are filed away until I find another use for them.

When I tried the chemigram process with the negatives I ran into the problems of positive/negative mixing; positive image, negative chemicals, whereas I needed positive image and positive chemicals which would involve a 3 step process of contact printing paper negatives. Had I not been using fiber paper with a deadline in sight I might have had the time to concentrate on doing so.

Instead, and perhaps more fitting to the rest of the work I’ll be showing, I made a pure chemical photogram (on the right). I used leftover materials from the shoot and made a few different prints with different arrangements and materials before settling on this one.

Our set for the triptych photoshoot, for Chinatown Remixed. This was prior to adding more mushrooms, honeysuckles and tapioca balls and removing the vicious hose-snake.

(Source: dantepenman.com)