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All of my photographs are made with cameras I build myself, by taking any box that I like and making it light tight. A piece of aluminum foil is attached to one side and a hole is poked in it. These pinhole cameras make images that can range from extremely blurry to just shy of perfect focus. The depth of field is infinite; no matter how close or far the subject it will all be in the same focus. I have no range finders to see what I am going to be getting, but it’s not all chance effects; after years of trial and error I can often figure out what I am going to achieve with each shot- but the addition of possible unforeseen accidents is always exciting.
I started doing Gum Bichromate prints two years ago. This involves coating a piece of watercolor paper with a mixture of pigment and the right chemicals. Once that coating has dried I place a negative on the paper and put it all into a frame. This contraption gets placed outside to be exposed by the ultra violet rays of the sun. The exposure time can be anywhere from 20 seconds to 20 minutes. Depending on the light and weather conditions. Once it has been exposed I remove the negative and lay the paper, pigment side down, in a tray of water. The unexposed parts will all wash away and the exposed parts will stick, leaving a positive image. I can do this multiple times on the same piece of paper with the same negative and different colors. The image builds and changes with each layer. This process takes a black and white image and renders it in colors. The texture of the paper gives it a soft quality. Recently I have started making my own paper for the gum prints; this adds another level of craft to the process, something else I can control. This can add more chance, because each batch of paper will be different in texture, color, absorbency, thickness.
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