Kinderfest
Kinderfest is German for ‘children’s party’. This is written on the back of the original album photograph. When this photograph was taken in Germany in 1923 none of the subjects would have had any idea of what was to come. Looking at the photograph, I found it difficult to separate out my knowledge of the future that was rapidly approaching.
My intervention began with making a digital negative from the original photograph. In the darkroom I mixed my blood with photographic developer so that the photographs would be printed with blood - creating a direct connection between myself and my family’s past. Photographic bleach was used to further disrupt and transform the photograph in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways.
Chemigrams printed with the artist’s blood, darkroom chemicals and photographic bleach on resin-coated paper. 6 prints, 30 x 40cm & 24 x 30cm, 2018