Produktionsaufenthalt – Claudia Rohrauer

ANALOGUE FIELDWORK 

Analogue Fieldwork deals with the potential and possibilities of sustainable analog darkroom practice, plant-based developers as an alternative to conventional photographic chemicals and thus with the future of analog photography. The central starting point is the ability of plants to act as a developer substance through the phenols and polyphenols they contain and to reduce silver salts to metallic silver.

The environment and surroundings in Lindabrunn become accomplices and co-producers of photographic image production; as an artist, I hand over control of the processes to plants, soil, weather, sun and, last but not least, to chance, which may bring about unpredictable chemical reactions between the light-sensitive photographic material such as film and paper and the plant phenols. Tried and tested techniques will be played out with the ecological resources available at Lindabrunn: the production of plant-based film developers to develop photographic documentation of the work process; phytograms of plants growing on site: a technique in which the plant develops its own image through direct contact with the film material and anthotypes: ephemeral light images created by dyes from plants growing on site. In this way, a site-specific portrait of the terrain is created – the depicted and the depicting grow together in the picture plane. Process documentation and “end results” meet on an equal level.

ANALOGUE FIELDWORK Workshop

The workshop offers an insight into alternative and sustainable processes in the analog photo lab. The central feature is the ability of plants to act as developing agents through the phenols and polyphenols they contain and to reduce silver salts to metallic silver. During a walk, plants growing on site will be collected to serve as source material for image production: following the exploration of the area, a film developer will be brewed from the plants to develop the photo documentation of the walk. On top of that, the technique of the phytogram is presented, in which plants develop their own image in the form of a silver image through direct contact with the film material. The collaborative process with a performative character opens up a field for an exchange on the relationship between environment, material resource and image production as well as the depicted and the depictor.

Previous knowledge of photography is not a prerequisite, but can be an advantage.