Images of Tasmania

Beneath the Surface – River Derwent 

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I have been sampling water from the river and using it in a bleach etch process called mordantçage (consisting of kinds of chemicals that can be found in the stuff of human activity:- disinfectant, fungicides and herbicides) to explore how the materials are transformed. 

When photographic paper is washed the paper surface begins to blister and disintegrate in a process of chemical transformation, revealing abstract landscapes – an intricate signature of the river water.  

These dye destruction prints have then been scanned and enlarged in yet another digital transformation. The colours come from the elements remaining in the photographic paper left to dry in the sun.