Elizabeth Turk's TPS Talk: Additional Information


Many thanks to Elizabeth for sharing the following information for her TPS Talk -

Bibliography for TPS Talk by V. Elizabeth Turk (2-10-2023)

Barnes, Martin. Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography, V&A, London: Merrell, 2010

Batchen, Geoffrey. Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph. Munich; London; New York: DelMonico Books, 2016

Burchfield, Jerry. Primal Images: 100 Lumen Prints of Amazonia Flora, Center for American Places, 2004

Elcott, Noam. Christian Marclay: Cyanotypes, JRP/ Ringier, 2012

Heckert, Virginia. Light, Paper, Process: Reinventing Photography, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2015

Miller-Clark, Denise. Within this Garden: Photographs by Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, Aperture, 1993

Parry, Eugenia. Adam Fuss, Arena Editions, 1997

Rexer, Lyle. Photography’s Antiquarian Avant-Garde: The New Wave in Old Processes, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002

Scala, Mark W. Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art. Nashville, Tennessee, First Center for the Arts, 2015

Siegel, Elizabeth. Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2013

Technical:

Blacklow, Laura. New Dimensions in Photo Processes: A Step-by-Step Manual for Alternative Processes, Fourth Edition, Focal Press, 2007

Crawford, William. The Keepers of Light, New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1979 Hirsch, Robert. Photographic Possibilities, Third Edition, Boston: Focal Press, 2009

James, Christopher. The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, Second Edition, New York: Delmar, 2002

Nettles, Bea. Breaking the Rules: A Photo Media Cookbook, Inky Press Productions, 1977

Renner, Eric. Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique, Fourth Edition, Boston: Focal Press, 2008

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Artist Statement: Tremulous Anatomies

These pictures testify to the integral link that binds light, shadow and human nature (itself shadowy and illusive). Their strength is the images’ power to trace and warp our assumptions about corporal reality. Analogous to anatomical illustrations, they give breath and life to a cyborg cohort. In them the human figure is surely present, but absent the details that convey humanity. Instead, materials from the natural world perform an elaborate mime, as stand-ins for the visceral elements of our make-up: skin, veins and bone. Ephemeral more than tangible, the images evoke the ubiquitous nature of time, ricocheting between future, present and past–while reminding us that mortality is as tactile and Gaussian as the Shroud of Turin.

The images here, each unique, employ antiquarian cameraless photographic processes– using formulas and rituals akin to alchemy. In a nearly darkened room the chemicals are measured and mixed; then–setting up, waiting for the rare unobstructed sun, then, with luck, long exposures and the final processing (again in the almost-dark room)¬¬. The usual result is inexplicable graphic chaos, accidents–but just often enough, fortuitous marvels. That controlled chaos lends humanity (an uncertainty principle) to these images, and is the source of the magic that radiates from the paper.

V. Elizabeth Turk

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Presentation Terms for V. Elizabeth Turk TPS Talk (2-10-2023)

The English astronomer, Sir John Herschel, invented both the Van Dyke process and the Cyanotype process in 1842.

The Van Dyke process utilizes the action of light on ferric salts. The Van Dyke process gets its name from its similarity in color to the deep brown pigment used by the Flemish painter Van Dyck.

The Cyanotype process was the first successfully realized practical non-silver iron process and created a permanent image in a wide array of blue values.

A photogram is a unique photograph created without a camera by placing objects on the surface of light-sensitive paper and exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used. Areas of the paper that have received no light appear light; those exposed through transparent or semi-transparent objects appear dark.

Lumen prints are a form of photogram or photogenic drawing that are made with photo sensitive materials such as traditional black and white or color photographic papers. Chemical development is not necessary; however, chemical fixation is necessary to stabilize the print for greater permanence. Every brand and type of photo paper has distinctive tonal and color characteristics. Jerry Burchfields' Primal Images is an exceptional monograph of lumen prints.

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