Photopoiesis

Experimental Photography

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This series of (human blood-derived) albumen prints are titled Primitiae, alluding to their subject. Current scientific research suggests that bombardment by meteorites over 4 billion years ago could prove to be the origin of the requisite building blocks for the production of biological life on Earth (which implies this could happen elsewhere in the Universe). I have inserted my biological material--a set of specific DNA sequences--into images taken through the microscope of the interior structure of meteorites, thereby altering (glitching) their form.

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Inspired by an exhibition of Cy Twombly paintings at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, I began to likewise experiment with “excessive colouration and gesture” (a quote from the exhibition catalogue). I was particularly drawn to the way in which his work illicits a sense of “carelessness” and “defilement”, even its “explosive sexual charge” (see further text via Guggenheim). It was Twombly’s Untitled, 1961 (Roma), and a coincidental residency that led me to Rome, that provoked this response to his work as a series of lumen-chemogram prints made with my blood.

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"Plasmatype" -- two from a broader series of (human serum-derived) albumen prints. About the prints: I have inserted my biological code into the stars, thereby altering (glitching) their form.

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A continuation of the Corpus Grandiferum project, a study of the body as terrain for exploration and exploitation, through visualisation of the mixing and resisting of materials with my blood.

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Corpus Grandiferum | Permutation 1

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Produced through through the combination of my blood with various ‘natural’ substances (such as metal oxides and pigments) and recorded using only a hacked webcam for a microscope, Corpus Grandiferum considers the body as as terrain for exploration and exploitation. Through extrapolation, it can be seen as both a satellite (“god’s eye”) view of our planet, as well a metaphor for our material relationship with the Earth.

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Corpus Grandiferum | Permutation 2

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The history of the cyanotype printing process is intertwined with the history of science. Initially used by John Herschel as a method of recording his data, this process was widely adopted as a mode of copying schematics (blueprint) in the fields of engineering and architecture.

In this series of prints, the structural elegance of particle tracks, as recorded by the Large Hadron Collider of CERN and the Bubble Chamber of Fermilab, are captured using ultraviolet energy from the Sun.

Series of 5x7″ cyanotypes.

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Lux Geometrica is a series of celestially-inspired prints made using only sunlight, sand, and (vintage) expired photographic paper. The original lumen prints are then altered digitally to include a geometric pattern that is intended to reference the defraction of light as it passes through matter.

Series of lumen prints made using sand and vintage fiber paper.

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As an expression of our contemporary relationship with nature, a small grove of trees has been bound by a physical manifestation of their sequenced genome. This installation is my reflection upon the Anthropocene -- an era unsurpassed in technical proclivity and the modification of nature at the most fundamental material level.

The 60-foot long, cyanotype textile, hand-printed with a segment of the first full-genome of a tree to be sequenced (Populus trichocarpa), is installed in nature reserves worldwide. At each location, the history of human intervention upon the landscape — including layers of waning and waxing attempts at conservation — is explored around the time of installation. Locations: Portland, Oregon, USA; Delhi, India; Perth, Australia.

Sequence of tree genome printed with cyanotype emulsion on fabric, 4” x 60’.

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Born of the Stars, a hand-painted kallitype print, is an examination of this matter at varied scales--from the cellular to the interstellar. Through superimposition of images I have taken at varied orders of magnitude, making use of both photomicroscopy and astrophotography, my aim is to disrupt our preconceived notions of scale. Born of the Stars represents an evolutionary metamorphosis of the cosmos into myriad biological forms.

5x7″ selenium-toned kallitype.

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A selection from my first experiments with historical processes--the series of portraits titled “Outliers” (2014)--in large format wet plate collodion.