The main purpose of this blog is to point out the nature and difference between two ‘styles’ I invented:
1. Pictures and details from brass sheets that have been exposed to water
2. Work with what is called “water tank art”, where I am using thin films of water and reflections from them.
Both styles use a cannon and macro lens.
Gallery 1 and 2 are brass work and gallery 3 water tank.
There are more styles to come; the photos are not loaded as yet, when they are they will be in galleries.
Although each brass is unique it is possible to take many different photos of the same sheet because the incidence of light and reflection bring out other elements.
Because of the abstract nature of my work I have used the idea of landscape. The last picture in gallery 3 “sky fall”, which is a thin film or water tank image, has blue at the top and green foreground. The way it is laid out is reminiscent of the impressionist style; the mind can make sense of what it is seeing. Other pictures are abstract but because they are rich in detail the mind picks things; through this picking a story can be created, for me that is the journey. Some pictures change or morph if looked at under low light or from a distance, such as “recognition” from gallery 2. This reminds me of the wallpaper on my bedroom wall when I was a kid, creating faces and seeing if I could find them again next day.
As I said in my intro to the site, these pictures can be lived with; if you look at them regularly new scapes appear.
There are nearly 100 brasses, to keep track of them and the dozens of pictures from each one they were named. For example, one group is called “the shrines” another “waterfall”, so named because the place where the brasses were placed had the feel of a shrine, close to the road and enclosed.
The brasses can take over 200 hours to ‘develop’; I use that word loosely, it doesn’t mean I was there with a finger on a virtual shutter release. It can be confusing to use exposure time but that’s what it feels like. Different exposure times, to the waters, produce different images, all else being equal.
After 30 or so brasses I got discerning and looked for elements that would produce interesting images. Brasses from the stream bottom looked different to sheets placed under a spout at a waterfall.
I have theories about the data that is written to the brasses relating to charge in the water as it spins, so the effect is more electrical than chemical.
So far I have seen no evidence of a magnetic aspect because the water does not respond to magnets in the production of the pictures.
The “water tank art” has given insight to the brass work and educated me in macro lighting and other techniques. It was a spontaneous invention. The small aquarium tank was bought for another purpose. The tank offered more control and ease of exploration to see into something. The brasses can be highly reflective so are challenging to light.
