Nostalgia and Dreams
Hello friends,
I have had an intense feeling of nostalgia the past few weeks. Maybe it is because my son has left home for school or maybe it is the change in the seasons. It is very hard to tell with these types of emotions.
It got me thinking about film and how much the craft of photography has changed so much.
It started thinking about my film cameras I still have but never use anymore, so I decided to share with you my last real film project, Arboreal Dreams. This was very successful for me, and I sold editions of almost every print (except the one below, Fairyroots).
Strangely enough this is still my favourite from the project even though I felt it was rejected out of hand the last time it was on the walls.
Maybe I am feeling more sentimental than nostalgic.
I’ve included some words about the project and my film technique below, and you can also see the full gallery on my website. I would love to hear your thoughts on this project. As always, hit reply to be in touch.
Thank you for support,
Anthony
This is the statement that explained the project when people arrived at the gallery
Arboreal Dreams
As a young child growing up in Maine the forest was my back garden. I would leave my house early in the morning and wander the forest all day. For me the natural world is a second life, a fantasy land of purity and calm that I escape to when the violence of our concrete city gets too much for me.
In Arboreal Dreams I want to convey the powerful feelings that I get when I wander through a forest, as well as drawing in that fantasy element into my work. The images are developed through a dual film process which I have evolved in order to get a sense of ‘hyper reality’.
I feel an attachment to the artistic tradition of reverence for natural beauty and reverence for the technical skill of the artist. The rejection of beauty and skill in much of modern photography makes me return with stronger conviction to my beliefs.
..and this I felt I needed also so people would not think the images were made digitally. It was about that time just as digital art became wide spread.
A note about my photographic technique:
The images in Arboreal Dreams were shot on medium format film(Hasselblad) and hand processed through a technique called Colour Acceleration. It is process I have been experimenting with for fifteen years.
Colour Acceleration is a “dual film” process not a “cross process”, as most altered film is. In the first phase the film is processed in black and white chemistry, fixated, then bleached and re-exposed to light. The result is a negative that has been “solarized”, which I control in the bleach step.
The images in Arboreal Dreams are printed on Fuji Supergloss polyester based photographic paper. It’s qualities are deep saturation, and high contrast with an archival life of five hundred years.
The image colours are natural and are inherent qualities of its negative and are not manipulated digitally or enhanced.