From Silver Crystals to Landscape Pixels

For this study, we used a positive photographic process to create new pictorial imagery. Through research and our understanding of darkroom practices, we began to find an alternative way to create imagery. Through this process, we realized that technology is not replacing antiquated photographic methods that came before, but rather, building upon them and helping us achieve what we want; we were able to bring the world into the darkroom. To create these photographic images, called ambrotypes, we needed glass plates of various sizes, darkroom chemicals, an iPad, and an 8x10 photographic enlarger. By referencing historical landscape images, we were able to identify their locations utilizing google maps, street view and google earth. After surveying the “landscape,” and finding a momentous site, we took a screenshot of the image using an iPad, edited it in photoshop, projected it through the enlarger onto the light-sensitive glass plate, and finally, developed and fixed the latent image. Through this research, we, as photographers, were able to confirm our understanding of the world and our relationship to the landscape. By learning how to hybridize and strategize an antiquated photographic process, we were able to create new, topographical imagery. The result gave us a sustainable way to create images without taking the camera outside, and only bringing minimal equipment into our darkroom environment