Letter to Mary S. : A pocketbook primer to the artist's practice (Wondelgem : self published, 2022)
Since its invention in the 19th century, photography has walked step by step with industrial growth and pollution. Photography was born into a world of smoke and smog, predestined to become a symbol of a new world-order. The camera as a modern device prophesied the changing times that evoked its invention as it originates in an era marked by industrialization, mass production, automation, globalisation and capitalization. Not only does photography thrive on a cybernetic relation between an apparatus and an operator, it also engages in the relationship between the human and the non-human on a level where no other representation-based artform is capable of doing so. Photography is the medium par excellence to capture and imagine invisible and irreversible change. Shortly after the invention of photography, Mary Somerville, a Scottish scientist and mathematician, started researching the light sensitive qualities of plants. By subtracting chlorophyll from weeds and flowers, she was able to produce organic light sensitive emulsions. French Marigold, Red Dahlia, Corchorus Japonica, Nasturtium, Globe Amaranth, Plumbago Auriculata, Viola Tricolour, Harlequin Flower, Scarlet Geranium, Black Hollyhock, Persian Speedwell, Purple Dahlia, etc. Almost any flower could be used, some only leaving a faded imprint, others leaving a clear and sharp image. The workspace was filled with colour and scent, a pure expression of nature itself. (first part of text in book)
design: Arno Huygens
boek
Keywords: Deceuninck, Tim Theo