The invention of some of these emulsions like the Cyanotype and the Van Dyke Brown date back to around 1840. While they were popular for a while at their invention and again for a period around 1890 they have largely remained unexplored as a creative medium until the 1990s.

To replicate the traditional photographic print, these emulsion are usually applied in the closed form of a rectangle. However, in 1996 I developed the technique of painting the emulsion onto a base in a free form manner to create light sensitive shapes, symbols and motifs that he was interested in at the time. I later extended this into large installations of multiple works.

The impetus to engage in alternative processes came from some of my students who were curios about the processes. I had already created photograms on traditional black & white paper with Codes to Survival and colour negative paper with Evidence from the Religion of Technology and wondered who this technique could be applied to alternative photographic processes. During the summer 1996 I began experimenting and after creating the work Archaeology of Cinema,where there was great holes in the image, it occurred to me that the emulsion could be applied in a free form manner. From here I began experimenting with the application painted on as motifs.

The mixing of chemicals from base material, coating the paper and exposing to the sun appeared to have certain alchemic qualities. It extended the ideas of the Evidence works with a further reference to how we release chemicals into the environment, they combine into complex substances that we have little understanding and control over. A series of works developed where alchemical motifs were painted on to the paper.

Technical Resource

Alchemic Symbols