Adze to Coda - an archaeology of device - a series of combination photogram photographs - 1993 - © Lloyd Godman

Artist Journal - Lloyd Godman

I remember standing at the old fish factory in Port Pegasus on the way to the Auckland Islands, about the earth was scattered the remains of building materials and some old tools. On the expedition to the Auckland Islands Chester Neilie had found a bone Maori fish hook, which was reputed to be the very first fish hook found on the islands.

Following the Codes to Survival images where I combined photographs and photograms, I decided to explore the relationship of tools and landscape with a combination of photographs and photograms. I decided to do this in a more direct manner- where the tools were not just an aspect of the photogram, but were larger and created defined shapes on the print that played off the rectangular photograph. I created the photograms of the tools with a complex texture inside made from two other photogram exposures - in all each print contained 4 exposures on the paper. One to create the landscape image, the next two to create the photogram texture, and the final one which created the dense black back ground that defined both the photograph and the shape of the tool. Each print required a series of templates and careful calculation of the exposures.