I hate to say how many years ago but let’s just say 35 .. about 35 years ago I decided to do whatever I could to become a better printer. this was the days of the darkroom and to learn to print better I would put anything I could find in my enlarger head and make a print from it. I put things I found on the street, things I peeled off of telephone poles, things I fabricated myself, anything that could allow light to transmit through, I’d project it onto photo paper and convert it to a print. there was no pre-visualization on my end. I didn’t find a something and already see what it was going to be, like some photographers might do in a landscape. they already have an idea in their mind what their final product would look like, and they’d expose their film and develop the negative to make it “fit” their photo paper; my “exercise” was something a little different. I’d find something and just print it so there were blacks, whites and middle grays; I didn’t believe any part of the photographic process was sacred and I still don’t, it’s just about converting something into an image.
These days to keep my photographic mind active I do the same thing, but I might take a picture of some random object with my cellphone and see what I can do with it. most recently it was an orange peel.
There is nothing important about this orange peel. I removed it from the fruit in a single piece and just photographed it with window light on a piece of paper, but I decided to see what I could covert it to. It’s just something to play with, and so far these are 3 images I made from it, they are all landscapes of a far away place.
I just used the original form of the peel and worked with it in photo shop. I don’t do anything too fancy, no AI morphing, nothing I couldn’t do in the darkroom.
