Continuing from my last blog, which discussed how I make use of painting as part of my fine art practice, I wanted to look at the role of painting in photography practice.
I prefer to shoot on black and white film and then further manipulate the negatives or prints, both during the darkroom process and after. I particularly like scratching negatives, to change or remove areas of the image. One image I worked on recently, involved me carrying out a photo shoot against a white backdrop, with the model wearing only white. The photographs were over exposed to blank out the models outfit and leave her hands, face and feet very pale. After developing the film, I used a pin to scratch onto the blank space, manipulating the image to look like the Virgin Mary. After a print had been made, I painted onto it in the style of one of the crude images of Mary which I had been looking at as part of my research. The finished effect is a kind of bizarre collage of techniques.
For another photograph which involved painting, I painted thick black paint onto a piece of acetate. Once it had dried, I placed the acetate over a piece of photo paper and exposed it, giving the paper a black boarder and brush marks where the light had been able to pass through. I then exposed it a second time in the usual way, projecting an image from a negative.
Moving forward I plan to further explore the potential of using painting in conjunction with photography. The more experimental and hands on my photographic practice can become, the better.
