Like so many photographers who grew up before digital photography I miss the adventure of the wet darkroom. There is something eternally surprising about watching the image emerge from a piece of white paper. There is also something about risk going on there. You never quite know what’s going to happen.
Looking for this hands-on feeling, but not so eager to work with chemicals, some friends and I began experimenting with printing our digital images on different surfaces – bringing back in an element of hands-on work and chance,
After experimenting with paper, fabric, and various substrates, we honed in on metal roof flashing. Yes, the stuff you buy at Lowe’s or Home Depot.
We sanded off the slick surface and painted on a substrate/coating that would accept the ink. Using a fairly funky inkjet printer that allowed us to pass the metal “paper” straight through, we were able to get a mix of digital imaging and slightly unpredictable printing – watching image emerge not knowing quite what to expect.
The result is a feeling of texture and a little bit of mystery. People were so curious – What is this? – that I decided to lightly coat the images so that they could be touched without smearing the ink.
